NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF STEADY VISCOUS FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER PAST GAS BUBBLES IN A SPACECRAFT HEATPIPE
- Paper number
IAC-11,C2,7,16,x11971
- Author
Mr. Michael Kio, National Space Research and Development Agency, Abuja, Nigeria, Nigeria
- Author
Prof. Clement Folayan, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, Nigeria
- Coauthor
Dr. OLUFEMI ABGOOLA, National Space Research and Development Agency, Abuja, Nigeria, Nigeria
- Year
2011
- Abstract
Numerical Solutions of Navier stokes equations are given for steady, viscous, incompressible axisymmetric flow past a gas bubble for low to moderate Reynolds number in a constant conductance space craft heat pipe. One reason for studying this problem is to better understand numerical solution techniques for investigating fluid flow and heat transfer patterns in a spacecraft heat pipe. Exact solutions of Navier stokes equations for moderate or larger Reynolds numbers cannot be expected, since experimental work is limited to low Reynolds number flow because of instability and turbulence, this problem is usually approached by numerical means. The problem is formulated in terms of stream function and the vorticity which are expanded in finite Legender series. The coefficient in these series satisfies a finite system of ordinary differential equation. A finite difference scheme is used to solve the system with Newton’s method used to solve the non linear equations. The results agree very well with low and high Reynolds number theories. This simplified model has also been validated using computational fluid dynamics software known as star CD for each spacecraft heat-pipe operating mode for various operating conditions. The Numerical and Star CD results show that this method can be further used to optimize the transport properties of a spacecraft heat pipe.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-11,C2,7,16,x11971.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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