MARANGONI HEAT PIPES: AN EXPERIMENT ONBARD MIOSAT ITALIAN MICROSATELLITE
- Paper number
IAC-08.A2.3.6
- Author
Prof. Raffaele Savino, University of Naples "Federico II", Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Anselmo Cecere, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Italy
- Coauthor
Mr. Roberto Di Paola, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Italy
- Coauthor
Dr. Dario Castagnolo, MARS s.r.l., Italy
- Coauthor
Dr. Raimondo Fortezza, MARS s.r.l., Italy
- Coauthor
Dr. Yoshiyuki Abe, National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
- Year
2008
- Abstract
MIOsat is a remote sensing mission based on a micro-satellite (mass of 120Kg) developed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The launch is scheduled for 2011 with the VEGA launcher. The main payload is represented by an optical instrument for earth observation; however other small technological experiments have to be integrated in the satellite. Among them MIOsat will host a dedicated payload to investigate five innovative heat pipes to be operated in space under a microgravity environment. Four heat pipes will be manufactured with a conventional metallic structure (in copper or aluminium) and will be filled with ordinary and innovative working fluids. In particular, one of them will be selected as a reference heat pipe and charged with water or ammonia representing the most common working fluids used in terrestrial or space heat pipes. The other heat pipes will be charged with other working fluids, including binary or multi-component self-rewetting solutions with particular surface tension properties. Indeed, one of the primary objectives of the experiment is to assess the advantages of reverse Marangoni effect, using suitable liquid mixtures with surface tension increasing with temperature (self-rewetting fluids). For this purpose, parallel experiments will be conducted on several heat pipes to carry out quantitative comparisons between the performances of the reference heat pipes and those having the same geometry and structure, but filled with self-rewetting fluids One of the five heat pipes will be an innovative flexible, inflatable and deployable ultra-light weight radiator panel filled with self-rewetting fluid.After a general introduction on the scientific background, the paper will summarize the main activities in preparation of the flight experiment, the general design of the flight hardware and of the experimental procedure planned for the flight. The laboratory results achieved on ground, including surface tension measurements and preliminary experiments will be presented. From the engineering point of view, benchmark test for heat pipes filling, sealing and characterization will conclude the paper.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.A2.3.6.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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