Numerical Simulations and Analyses of Temperature Control Loop Heat Pipe for Space CCD Camera

As one of the key units of space CCD camera,the temperature range and stability of CCD components affect the image’s indexes.Reasonable thermal design and robust thermal control devices are needed.One kind of temperature control loop heat pipe(TCLHP) is designed,which highly meets the thermal control requirements of CCD components.In order to study the dynamic behaviors of heat and mass transfer of TCLHP,particularly in the orbital flight case,a transient numerical model is developed by using the well-established empirical correlations for flow models within three dimensional thermal modeling.The temperature control principle and details of mathematical model are presented.The model is used to study operating state,flow and heat characteristics based upon the analyses of variations of temperature,pressure and quality under different operating modes and external heat flux variations.The results indicate that TCLHP can satisfy the thermal control requirements of CCD components well,and always ensure good temperature stability and uniformity.By comparison between flight data and simulated results,it is found that the model is to be accurate to within 1℃.The model can be better used for predicting and understanding the transient performance of TCLHP.