Numerical Analysis of a Single Microchannel Within a High-Temperature Hydrogen Heat Exchanger for Beamed Energy Propulsion Applications

摘要

The requirement that the propellants used in launch vehicle systems must also provide the thermal energy to be converted to kinetic energy in the rocket nozzle has plagued rocket designers since the dawn of the space age. Beamed propulsion systems, however, avoid this constraint by placing the energy source on the ground and transmitting the energy to the spacecraft via microwaves. This work computationally models three different heat exchanger channel designs for use in a beam propulsion spacecraft. It was found that despite the very small diameter of the microchannels, each design produced extreme temperature gradients across the channel cross section.