Advanced Transport Technologies for NASA Thermal Management/Control Sytems

Thermal management of NASA life-support, high-power electronics, and measurement systems enables a wide variety of crucial space, air-flight, and monitoring technologies. These systems employ fluids to cool heat-generating modules and efficiently transport that energy to components that either make use of it or reject it to space. Current heat exchangers at the interfaces between the thermal management system and components that reject or receive energy rely on single-phase convection. As a result, these heat exchangers are relatively large and heavy. Augmented single-phase and phase-change (in which the fluid boils and/or condenses) heat exchangers hold promise to reduce the size and enhance the performance of these systems, if reliability issues can be resolved. A highly-integrated, statewide research and educational advancement program is proposed among four Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) institutions: the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC), and the Desert Research Institute (DRI). The program objective is to develop advanced single-phase and phase-change loop heat transfer technologies that will enhance the performance and reliability of the NASA thermal management/control system. In addition, this work will be the bases for the development of innovative and interactive educational modules as well as technology transfer. The proposed work will fund four faculty members and four Ph.D. students who will gain experience in areas of interest to NASA. Specifically, this program will: 1) Develop surface treatments for advanced single-phase, boiling, and condensation passages, including the following: a. Grooves that trigger flow instabilities and enhanced mixing b. Thin hydrophobic film coatings to create enhanced drop-wise condensing surfaces c. Non-covalently assembled nano-tubular porous layers for high-critical-heat flux boiling surfaces 2) Integrate these technologies into feedback-controlled pumped and capillary-driven loops with high heat transfer, stability, and cold-startup performance 3) Perform proof-of-concept tests to demonstrate applicability of these heat transfer technologies for NASA and other thermal management systems 4) Help Nevada meet its need for a well-trained and diversified work force by the following: a. Training multiple Ph.D. students in experimental heat transfer research b. Integrating the unique challenges posed by NASA thermal management systems and the solutions developed by the current research program into interactive educational modules 5) Improve the collaborative research infrastructure within four NSHE research institutions, making them more competitive for funding through a wide range of NASA and other aerospace, science, and engineering programs 6) Foster development/licensing of intellectual property and spinoff companies based on the technologies developed in this work Miles Greiner, Science-I

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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