A Study of Thermal Response of an Optical View Port of Re-entry vehicle

Introduction
Manned space missions:
These missions involve in the orbiting and reentry. It is equipped with crew and their facilities including view port to observe outer space.

Atmospheric re-entry:
Change in the kinetic energy of the air particles results in increase in internal energy of the air molecules, which results in the thermal environments on the surface of the module.

Contd...

Re-entry of module

Contd..

To protect the crew and module, the re-entry module is shielded with the thermal insulating material. In this criteria, the view port material should posses the:
Heat insulating properties Optical properties.

Contd..
The evaluation of view port material is done through following tests:
S. No 1 2 Type of test Structural (UTM-universal testing machine) Thermo-structural(strength at different temperature) Thermal Thermo optical (transparent ability at operational temperatures) Optical Purpose Strength to withstand the mechanical loads Strength to the withstand the thermal loads Heat transfer and its rate Optical nature at operational temperature. Transparency and Refractive Index

3 4

Thermal Evaluation
Amount of heat transfer through the thickness is evaluated. Quartz glass is selected for the view port. Quartz glass is studied experimentally under the Infrared Radiation test and convective heating test. A 1-D heat conduction program is written to simulate the heat flow through the material.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES

A Peculiar Case with the Quartz Glass Specimen

Quartz glass is optically transparent, it transmits all the radiation through it. The required transient heat flux cant applied on the surface of the quartz glass. In order make sure that the required heat flux is absorbed on the specimen, the specimen is coated with the high emissivity black paint, which can absorb more heat energy.

Specimen Preparation
Cleaning of the specimen:
surface is polished and cleaned with an emery paper.

Preparation of the thermocouple:

K-type thermocouples are used.

Bonding the thermocouples to the specimen surface:

The junction is cemented to the surface with high thermal resistance ceramic paste.

Preparation for the IR radiation test:

the specimen is coated with the black colour high temperature paint It has 99.95% absorbivity.

Preparation for the Convective heat transfer test:

a thermocouple is placed and cemented in front surface of the specimen to get the front surface temperature readings.

INFRARED RADIATION TEST

Experimental studies

Test setup

Test procedure
After positioning the specimen in its place, inspection should be carried out, to make sure of the experimental setup. Inspections like checking the air cooling system to the heater module and water cooling system to the heat flux sensor, Once all the check was okay, the power controller was switched on and the required heat flux profile was simulated. The specimen is exposed to the IR radiation emitted from the IR lamps, Heat flux is applied on the front surface (the surface, which is exposed to the IR radiation) and with the help of the thermo-couple sensor, the back wall temperatures was measured. During radiation test, the specimen was placed at 100mm from the infrared lamps. Prior to the experiment a calibration was done to get the centre to side heat flux ratio. This value was used to correct the heat flux simulated the feedback mode.

Observations
At 145 seconds the high heat paint on the specimen started evaporating with fumes being released. At 150 190 seconds, the heat flux reached to its peak values. 180 195 seconds, the heat paint on the surface has been completely evaporated. And then, the specimen started to transmit all the radiation to other side as a transparent material. Then the experiment was terminated. the temperatures are measured and recorded. Required plots and interpretations were generated from the temperatures recorded in the computer.

Results
500

Temperature at TC 1 Temperature at TC 2 Temperature at TC 3

400

Temperature ( C)

300

200

100

250

500

750

Time (s)

Time vs. Back wall temperatures response of a quartz glass.

Experimental study Convective test

Test setup
LPG cylinders: These are the gas supplies of the convective heating system. These are the cylinders filled with the Liquid Petroleum Gas, which is fuel used in the convective heating system. 3 to 5 LPG cylinders are connected to the pressure manifold, where the control of flow of LPG is done. Burner: It is a part of convective heating system, where the gas and air is mixed together at required pressures and proportions, and get burned through ignition device. Blower: It is one of the parts of CHS, which sucks the atmospheric air and mixes with the fuel at required proportions and, at required pressures then it release the air and LPG out, at required speed through nozzle. Pressure manifold: This is pipe, with the pressure gauges that are connected with the cylinders and stores the LPG for a while, until the required pressures are obtained. The pressure in the pressure manifold is controlled by the valves given at the end of the pressure manifold gauge. Control panel: It is an electronic system, which is installed in the CHS, which controls power to the system.

Simulated Heat Flux

9.5

Simulated Heat flux

8.0

Heat flux (W/cm )

6.5

5.0

3.5

2.0

250

500

750

Time (s)

Simulated convective heat flux history

Test procedure
It is difficult to simulate the thermal response of quartz glass for the typical transient heat flux profile, using convective heat source. Thus, to simulate the required heat load, a calibration procedure was adopted. The surface temperature of the specimen was obtained from temperature measurement during the convective heating test, by thermocouple bonded on to the surface of the specimen.

Results
750

500

Temperature ( C)
250

Surface Temperature Temperature at BW 1 Temperature at BW 2 Temperature at BW 3

250

500

750

Time (s)

Thermal response of quartz glass in convective heating test

Theoritical analysis

Introduction
A one dimensional thermal response of the view port glass carried out, and it is validate with the experimental results, to validate the view port glass in its operational conditions. In solving the energy equation, for the heat conduction through the view port glass window, the one dimensional nodal system is considered with differential and conserved form of energy equation from the physical laws of heat transfer. For of solving the discretized mathematical equations the explicit method of solving is adopted. the C-language is adopted as a platform to program the energy equation for one-dimensional heat conduction through a body.

Algorithm
Step 1: Start Step 2: initialization of parameters Step 3: initialization of initial temperature conditions Step 4: read the heat flux data Step 5: time steps increment Step 6: heat flux computation for every time step Step7: nodal increment Step 8:calculation K, Cp, Q for corresponding temperatures Step 9: front wall boundary temperature calculation Step 10: calculating the corresponding nodal temperature Step 11: updating the temperature obtained to next time step Step 12: output. Step 13: Return Step 14: End

Boundary Conditions
First node boundary conditions

Pictorial representation of the implementation of frontal node energy flow

The energy balance equation written for the frontal node is:

qincident k - h(T-T) - (T4-T4) = mCp

Contd..
Back wall:

The energy flow for the last node

The energy balance equation for the last node is:

k - h(T-T) - (T4-T4) = mCp

Theoritical analysis (Infrared Radiation) Results

The thermal history at the different nodes considering constant Cp and K.

1300

Constant material properties Cp and K

1100

Nodal temperatures

900

700

500

BACK WALL Middle node FRONT WALL

0 250 500 750

300

Time(s)

Thermal history at the different nodes considering variable Cp and K.

1300

Variable material properites Cp and K

1100

Noda temperatures (K)

900

700

500

BACK WALL middle node FRONT WALL

300

250

500

750

Variation of back wall temperature between experimental results and theoretical results

700

Back wall temperture (K)

600

500 Theoretical simulated Experimental simulated

400

300 0 250 Time (s) 500 750

Variation of back wall temperatures, between constant and varying material properties

800

Back wall tempertures(K)

700

600

500 constant material properties varying material properties experimental results 0 250 Time (s) 500 750

400

300

Theoretical study (Convective test) Results

Thermal profiles of convective test at different nodes with constant material properties
1300

1100

TEMPERTURES (K)

900

700

500

EXPERIMENTAL BACK WALL EXPERIMENTAL FRONT WALL COMPUTED BACK WALL COMUPUTED MIDDLE NODE COMPUTED FRONT WALL
0 250 500 750

300

TIME (S)

Thermal profiles of convective test at different nodes with varying material properties
1100

TEMPERTURES (K)

900

700

500

EXPERIMENTAL BACK WALL EXPERIMENTAL FRONT WALL COMPUTED BACK WALL MIDDLE NODE COMPUTED FRONT WALL
0 250 500 750

300

TIME (s)

Comparison of experimental and simulated thermal profiles of convective test with constant and varying material properties
1300

1100

TEMPERTURE (K)

900

700

500

BACK WALL - EXPERIMENTAL FRONT WALL - EXPERIMENTAL BACK WALL WITH VARYING Cp &K FRONT WALL WITH VARYING Cp & K BACK WALL WITH CONSTANT Cp & K FRONT WALL WITH CONSTANT Cp & K
0 250 500 750

300

TIME (s)

Project conclusion

 Through Radiation test, the transient heat flux history is applied on the test specimen, which prior to the test was coated with a thin layer of high temperature paint to enhance absorbivity. During the course of test the high temperature paint evaporated, hence the expected thermal response was not obtained. To overcome this difficulty, the test specimen was subjected to convective heating using a convective heat source, where the required thermal load is simulated. A one dimensional heat conduction program was written, with the appropriate transient boundary conditions. The material properties of quartz as a function of temperature, was incorporated in the program. The results predicted were comparable to the experimental results.

Quires?

Thank you By

K.PRAMOD D.RAVI TEJA Y.SHRAVAN KUMAR K.KIRAN