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The desire to increase the range and speed of hypersonic vehicles requires a sharp, shape-stable Wing Leading Edge (WLE) with performance capabilities well beyond that of the current state of the art. The goal of the proposed effort is to evaluate the manufacturability and performance of a passively cooled, micro heat pipe hypersonic wing leading edge. Managing the heating of a hypersonic wing leading edge can be accomplished through ablation, active cooling, or passive cooling. Passive cooling systems, unlike ablation or active cooling do not dissipate the heat directly, but transfer it to where it can be dissipated through convection. The current state of the art in hypersonic wing leading edges is carbon-carbon which manages heating through ablation. The downfall of an ablative WLE is the shape change that occurs during operation reducing the capability of the vehicle. The advent of additive manufacturing makes available new and innovative integrated thermal management systems that were previously not possible. The focus of this proposal, is a hypersonic wing leading edge with micro heat pipes embedded in the thin skin. A heat pipe is a passive, two phase heat transfer device with a very high effective thermal conductivity. A micro heat pipe, unlike traditional heat pipes, does not use a wicking structure, but instead relies on the capillary action at the narrow corners to circulate the working fluid. This new and innovative approach to the thermal management of hypersonic WLE’s provides a shape stable design with improved performance over the current state of the art. It eliminates or reduces many of the challenges associated with previous passive cooling concepts through design simplifications. This work will design an optimized micro heat pipe panel wing leading edge design, evaluate the manufacturability of an additively manufactured tungsten heat pipe with silver as the working fluid for hypersonic wing leading edge applications, and test the micro heat pipe panel at operating conditions.
The current state of the art in hypersonic wing leading edges is carbon-carbon. Cooled leading edges have been studied since 1958, but have rarely flown due to manufacturing difficulties and complexity. Advancements in additive manufacturing allows for new integrated thermal solutions for hypersonic wing leading edges that can improve performance, reduce complexity, and simplify manufacturing.
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