Numerical study for heat dissipation performance of phase transition cooling structure towards the wing antenna of hypersonic vehicle

Abstract

Most airborne antennas of hypersonic vehicles rely on passive thermal protection, which is greatly dependent on material advancements. This paper introduces a wing antenna concept based on active cooling to enhance the high-temperature resilience of antenna materials for airborne applications. Developed an active cooling numerical model employing the volume of fluid (VOF) and coupling evaporative heat transfer, exploring the active cooling performance of the wing antenna unit construction using water as the coolant. Taking into account multiple structural parameters, establish a comprehensive performance factor as the optimization objective. The research analyzes the model's wall temperature distribution and the efficiency of active cooling. Under the same thermal conditions, the heat dissipation performance of the wing antenna unit varies when optimizing for heat transfer, pressure drop, and overall performance, respectively. The micro sized wing antenna unit optimized for heat transfer performance exhibited a wall temperature of just 325.8 °C under a heat flux of 1000 KW/m2, albeit with a notable pressure drop. Conversely, the unit optimized for comprehensive performance registered a wall temperature of 348.4 °C without a significant pressure drop. Established heat tests to validate the credibility of the numerical model. This paper provides several references for the design of phase-change heat dissipation structures and active cooling techniques for hypersonic vehicle wing antenna applications.