On the Feasibility of Heat Removal from Generator/ Transmitter Units for Assumed 10MW Space Solar Power System by Using Two-phase Flow Loop with Latent Heat Transportation

Abstract

Feasibility of the Space Solar Power System (SSPS) is analyzed for an assumed 10MW model with an idealized generator/ transmitter unified modules assembled to make a circular satellite with a diameter of 200m. The sunlight is condensed by a magnification of three to reduce the satellite size without excessive increase in the heat generation rate. The present paper consists of five topics; i) advantage for the application of boiling/ two-phase flow to the thermal management system, ii) review of existing fundamental researches on the liquid-vapor behaviors and heat transfer characteristics in flow boiling, iii) analysis for the thermal energy flow in generator/ transmitter unified modules, iv) feasibility study on two-phase energy transport system from a view of energy balance and heat transfer, and v) proposals for the direction of future investigation to realize SSPS thermal systems. Even under the operating conditions not advantageous for the heat management and under the use of FC-72 with very low latent heat of vaporization, it is possible to integrate heat transfer area required for keeping the weight fraction of vapor flow at 0.8 and preventing the occurrence of dryout before the radiators. Heat transfer in cold plates and heat transport by two-phase flow loops could be improved much more by using water or other organic fluids with a higher value of latent heat. For a 1GW system, however, alternative choice of extremely high heat generation rate or extremely long heat transport distance is inevitable if the power is generated from one satellite.