Hypersonic aerospace vehicle leading-edge cooling using heat-pipe, transpiration and film-cooling techniques

Miscellaneous · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:7109614

Modlin, J M

The feasibility of cooling hypersonic-vehicle leading-edge structures exposed to severe aerodynamic surface heat fluxes was studied, using a combination of liquid-metal heat pipes and surface-mass-transfer cooling techniques. A generalized, transient, finite-difference-based hypersonic leading-edge cooling model was developed that incorporated these effects and was demonstrated on an assumed aerospace plane-type wing leading edge section and a SCRAMJET engine inlet leading-edge section. The hypersonic leading-edge cooling model was developed using an existing, experimentally verified heat-pipe model. Then the existing heat-pipe model was modified by adding both transpiration and film-cooling options as new surface boundary conditions. The models used to predict the leading-edge surface heat-transfer reduction effects of the transpiration and film cooling were modifications of more-generalized, empirically based models obtained from the literature. It is concluded that cooling leading-edge structures exposed to severe hypersonic-flight environments using a combination of liquid-metal heat pipe, surface transpiration, and film cooling methods appears feasible.

• Research Organization: Georgia Inst. of Tech., Atlanta, GA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7109614
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
SPACE VEHICLES
COOLING
FILM COOLING
FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD
FLOW MODELS
HEAT PIPES
HYPERSONIC FLOW
LIQUID METALS
SURFACES
TRANSPIRATION
ELEMENTS
FLUID FLOW
FLUIDS
ITERATIVE METHODS
LIQUIDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METALS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
VEHICLES
420400* - Engineering- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow