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Melting behavior and heat transfer performance of gallium for spacecraft thermal energy storage application

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  • Peng, Hao
  • Guo, Wenhua
  • Li, Meilin
  • Feng, Shiyu

Abstract

A typical low melting point metal (LMPM), gallium, is proposed for spacecraft thermal energy storage due to its superior thermal transport properties, and its dynamic melting behavior and heat transfer performance under microgravity are investigated. The role of thermocapillary convection in melting is analyzed, and the dimensionless equations for predicting liquid fraction as well as Nusselt number are developed. The results show that compared with conventional phase change materials including ice and n-octadecane, the utilization of gallium under microgravity can reduce the melting time by 88.3% and 96.4% respectively, while increase the total energy storage capacity by 20.7% and 123.3% respectively. The thermocapillary convection promotes the melting under microgravity, and the promotion effect for gallium is much weaker than that for ice or n-octadecane due to its smaller Marangoni number. The melting time of gallium, ice and n-octadecane under normal gravity are 65.8%, 39.4% and 69.2% less than those under microgravity respectively. The deviations of liquid fraction and Nusselt number predicted by dimensionless equations from numerical results are within ±10%. The results indicate that the thermal energy storage using gallium is effective for temperature control of spacecraft electronic devices under high and periodic heat flux.

Suggested Citation

  • Peng, Hao & Guo, Wenhua & Li, Meilin & Feng, Shiyu, 2021. "Melting behavior and heat transfer performance of gallium for spacecraft thermal energy storage application," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:228:y:2021:i:c:s0360544221008240
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.120575
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Liu, Di & Cai, Yang & Zhao, Fu-Yun, 2017. "Optimal design of thermoelectric cooling system integrated heat pipes for electric devices," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 403-413.
    2. Ge, Haoshan & Li, Haiyan & Mei, Shengfu & Liu, Jing, 2013. "Low melting point liquid metal as a new class of phase change material: An emerging frontier in energy area," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 331-346.
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    Cited by:

    1. Peng, Hao & Guo, Wenhua & Feng, Shiyu & Shen, Yijun, 2022. "A novel thermoelectric energy harvester using gallium as phase change material for spacecraft power application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    2. Wang, Zeyu & Diao, Yanhua & Zhao, Yaohua & Chen, Chuanqi & Wang, Tengyue & Liang, Lin, 2022. "Visualization experiment and numerical study of latent heat storage unit using micro-heat pipe arrays: Melting process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).

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