Structural testing of carbon-carbon radiator panel

摘要

A carbon-carbon radiator plate was designed, fabricated, and vibration tested to demonstrate that high thermal conductive carbon-carbon composites can achieve cost and weight savings over a baseline aluminum honeycomb radiator through the elimination of heat pipes without impacting thermal performance. This study was funded under the Carbon-Carbon Space Radiator Partnership (CSRP), an informal partnership of Government and industrial personnel with the purpose to promote carbon-carbon composites as engineering materials for spacecraft thermal management applications. Thermal-structural analysis of a hyperspectral imaging instrument for the NASA New Millennium EO-1 spacecraft indicated that a high conductivity carbon-carbon composite radiator plate without heat pipes would perform equivalently to a baseline aluminum honeycomb heatpipe cryoradiator panel. The analysis revealed that the radiator plate was able to meet or exceed all the required thermal and mechanical requirements while achieving cost and weight savings over the baseline aluminum honeycomb heatpipe radiator. The 125-mil thick carbon-carbon radiator plate of approximate 7-inch × 19-inch dimensions was constructed from a K321 carbon fiber-reinforced carbon-carbon composite plate from BFGoodrich. The carbon-carbon radiator panel was successfully tested to the protoflight vibration level loads environments without experiencing any structural anomalies as indicated by air-scan nondestructive testing. This paper will present results from the radiator design analysis, results of the vibration testing of the carbon-carbon composite plate, and comparative cost and weight tradeoff results over the baseline aluminum heatpipe radiator.