Research on the thermal management technology for docking manned spacecraft combination

<p>With the rapid development of the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, thermal management technology has emerged as a critical area of research and development. Effective thermal management is essential for addressing key challenges such as winter driven-range anxiety, battery thermal safety, energy saving and F-gas emission reductions. In the context of evolving global energy structures, environmental issues, and refrigerant substitution regulations, the future development of NEV thermal management industry is progressing toward the "new four modernizations": green and efficiency, functional integration, modular structure, and intelligent control. This paper explores these four aspects in detail. First, continuous performance optimization and the adoption of green technologies remain central themes of thermal management with emerging solutions such as thermal storage and CO<sub>2</sub>-based natural refrigerants expected to play a significant role. Second, more functional requirements, particular the integration of high-power on-board electronics are likely to be addressed through the non-vapor-compression refrigeration technologies. Third, the adoption of secondary-loop systems with modular structures will become the dominant approach to enhance the versatility, making pressure energy recovery technologies within thermodynamic cycle increasingly significant. Finally, the development of intelligent thermal management solutions such as model predictive control (MPC)-based energy hub framework will certainly become an indispensable part of vehicle thermal management system. Based on these considerations, this paper proposes two innovative evaluation factors and highlights the flexible applications of future NEV thermal management systems. The findings aim to provide valuable insights for scholars, practitioners, manufacturers and policymakers working toward the advancement of NEV thermal management technologies.</p>

Phase change materials in space systems. Fundamental applications, materials and special requirements – A review

The multiple working modes, complex working conditions, frequent changes in external heat flux, and high-power consumption of satellites all pose great difficulties to their thermal design. In this paper, the material MB15 magnesium alloy was used, which has not been performed for the main structure of satellites. This material not only reduces the weight of the structure and the launch cost, but also its good thermal conductivity is very helpful for the thermal control design of the satellite. This paper mainly describes the design of a thermal control system for lightweight microsatellites. Firstly, the satellite structure, thermal control indices of the main equipment, and the power consumption of the equipment in different working modes are introduced. Then, the external heat fluxes are analyzed, the position of the heat dissipation surface and extreme conditions are confirmed, and detailed thermal designs of each part of the satellite are determined via the combination of active and passive thermal control. Finally, the thermal balance test is carried out for the whole satellite. It is found that the deviation between the temperature of the thermistor and thermocouple at the same moment in the thermal analysis simulation data and thermal balance test is generally within 0.5 °C, and the maximum difference is not more than 1.7 °C, which indicates that the simulation model is well established and that the thermal analysis is reliable.

With increased performance requirements for smaller, more capable, and more efficient electronic systems, thermal challenges have become critical issues in electronic packaging design. Breakthroughs are needed in advanced cooling solutions and pragmatic design at chip, board, and system package levels. In response to these critical needs, advanced materials and process improvements in packaging and cooling technology are required to provide high thermal transfer efficiency, well-controlled thermal transient behavior, environmental compatibility, low weight, and acceptable material and fabrication cost. The lowest device temperature and expected reliability will be achieved when the lowest package thermal resistance is achieved. This chapter provides an outline of thermal challenges in advanced electronic packaging, heat transfer theory, and its application in thermal design, development of thermal management solutions, advanced thermal management materials selection and component design guideline, as well as environmental compatibility requirements in thermal management of electronic packaging.

The ultra-low NOx emission limits for heavy and mid-duty vehicles, which are expected to be imposed in both Europe and the USA by 2027, together with the enforcement of continuous decrease in CO2 emission levels, make the need for adoption of newer technologies in the automotive industry imperative. To achieve low tailpipe NOx emissions, the accelerated warm-up of the exhaust aftertreatment system is of great importance. On the other hand, the thermal management strategies applied for this purpose result in fuel consumption penalty and consequently higher CO2 as it can be widely found in the literature. Thus, the use and optimization of advanced thermal management technologies is critical to decrease the NOx– fuel penalty trade-off on the basis of complete driving cycles. In the present work an integrated modeled-based approach is implemented by coupling advanced, predictive 1D engine, and aftertreatment simulation models which are extensively validated via dedicated experimental data. The main goal of this approach is to define and investigate multiple engine or aftertreatment-based thermal management technologies, as well as a combination of them, creating a more efficient warm-up mode for the engine. Thermal measures such as cylinder deactivation, retarded start of the main injection, late intake valve closing (Miller cycle), intake throttling, elevated idle speed, and secondary fuel injection upstream the DOC are evaluated for their effect on the exhaust system heat-up time, the fuel consumption penalty and more importantly, for their impact on the tailpipe NOx emissions calculated by this holistic simulation approach.

Recent progress in photovoltaic thermal phase change material technology: A review

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) observatory was successfully launched on June 13 th , 2012 from a Pegasus XL launch vehicle into a low earth orbit (LEO). The NuSTAR mission is currently in the operational science phase, imaging the sky in the high energy X-ray spectrum. The spacecraft bus was designed, integrated, and tested by Orbital Sciences Corporation (Orbital). The Instrument was developed by teams from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), University of California – Berkeley (UCB), and other partners. This paper discusses the bus thermal control system (TCS) design, testing, and on-orbit performance. The NuSTAR TCS design was especially challenging due to the 10meter deployable instrument mast and the spacecraft requirement to point at any target in the sky. The full sky requirement leads to the requirement that the spacecraft withstand being exposed to the thermal environments in dramatically different ways. In some attitudes all of the bus radiators are shielded from solar flux, and in others the radiators can be exposed to full sun. A detailed thermal distortion analysis, which included a sensitivity analysis to many variables, was completed on the bus and instrument structure. The NuSTAR spacecraft utilizes four star trackers, each of which has its own unique thermal control challenges due to their different locations on the spacecraft. One of the star trackers required an innovative thermal control system due to its location inside the spacecraft bus cavity, which has a radiative environment temperature higher than the star tracker operational temperature limit. System level thermal vacuum (TVAC) and thermal balance testing presented a unique challenge because NuSTAR was in the instrument stowed configuration. During TVAC testing unique non-intrusive techniques were used to simulate some component dissipations, and special procedures were developed and utilized for difficult to verify heaters. The on-orbit thermal performance of the bus TCS has been excellent. The thermal model was correlated to on-orbit data to allow better prediction of thermal performance over the entire mission. The final analysis of the NuSTAR bus shows it will meet the TCS requirements for the 2-year mission as planned.

Accurate computation of external heat flux is critical for spacecraft thermal analysis and thermal control system design. The traditional method, which adopted the uniform planetary infrared radiation model (UPIRM), is inadequate for lunar orbital missions due to the extreme planetary surface temperature variations. This study proposes an external heat flux calculation method for lunar orbits by integrating a non-uniform lunar surface temperature model derived from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Diviner radiometric data. Specifically, the lunar surface temperature data were first fitted as functions of latitude (ψ) and position angles (ζ) through data regression analysis. Then, a comprehensive mathematical framework is established to analyze solar radiation, lunar albedo, and lunar infrared radiation components, incorporating orbital parameters such as beta angle (β), orbital inclination (i) and so on. Coordinate transformations and numerical integration techniques are employed to evaluate heat flux distributions across cuboidal orbiter surfaces. It is found that the lunar infrared radiation heat flux manifests pronounced fluctuation, peaking at 1023 W/m2 near the lunar noon region while plummeting to 20 W/m2 near the midnight region under the orbital parameters investigated in this study. This study demonstrates the essential role of the non-uniform planetary infrared radiation model (NUPIRM) in enhancing prediction accuracy by contrast, offering foundational references for thermal management in future lunar and deep-space exploration spacecraft.

In this study, thermal design and thermal management for a low-cost photonic integrated circuits (PIC) platform is proposed and analyzed. The involved PIC platform is targeted for various applications including optical communications, optical interconnects, signal processing and sensing. The module considered in this study consists of a rigid PCB made of FR4 material and a silicon photonics ICs platform on which a laser diode chip, a driver chip, and a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) chip are jointed using solder balls. A kovar case is chosen for the module. For the thermal design and thermal management, two objectives are involved in this study. The first one is to reduce the thermal resistance from junction to ambient and the other one is to reduce the thermal cross talk between the driver/TIA chips and laser source chip. The following accomplishments are achieved in this study. The overall junction to ambient thermal resistance is reduced to a certain level and meets the design target. The thermal cross effect between the driver/TIA chips and the laser source chip is reduced by cutting a slot in the silicon photonic platform and implementing separated heat spreaders for these chips.

Power semiconductors and chips are essential in modern electronics, driving applications from personal devices and data centers to energy technologies, vehicles, and Internet infrastructure. However, efficient heat dissipation remains a critical challenge, directly affecting their performance, reliability, and lifespan. High-power electronics based on wide- and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors can exhibit power densities exceeding 10 kW/cm2, hundreds of times higher than digital electronics, posing significant thermal management challenges. Addressing this issue requires advanced materials and interface engineering, alongside a comprehensive understanding of materials physics, chemistry, transport dynamics, and various electronic, thermal, and mechanical properties. Despite progress in thermal management solutions, the complex interplay of phonons, electrons, and their interactions with material lattices, defects, boundaries, and interfaces presents persistent challenges. This Account highlights key advancements in thermal management for power semiconductors and chips, with a focus on our group's recent contributions. Our approach addresses several critical issues: (1) developing materials with ultrahigh thermal conductivity for enhanced heat dissipation, (2) reducing thermal boundary resistance between power semiconductors and emerging 2D materials, (3) improving thermal and mechanical contacts between chips and heat sinks, (4) innovating dynamic thermal management solutions, and (5) exploring novel principles of thermal transport and design for future technologies. Our research philosophy integrates multiscale theoretical predictions with experimental validation to achieve a paradigm shift in thermal management. By leveraging first-principles calculations, the recent studies redefined traditional criteria for high-thermal-conductivity materials. Guided by these insights, we developed boron arsenide and boron phosphide, which exhibit record-high thermal conductivities of up to 1300 W/mK. Through phonon band structure engineering, we reduced TBR in GaN/BAs interfaces by over 8-fold compared to GaN/diamond interfaces. The combination of low TBR and high thermal conductivity significantly reduced hotspot temperatures, setting new benchmarks in thermal design for power electronics. We further explored the anisotropic TBR properties of two-dimensional materials and Moiré patterns in twisted graphene, expanding the thermal design landscape. To address challenges at device-heat sink interfaces, we developed self-assembled boron arsenide composites with a thermal conductivity of 21 W/mK and exceptional mechanical compliance (∼100 kPa). These composites provide promising solutions for thermal management in flexible electronics and soft robotics. In dynamic thermal management, we pioneered the concept of solid-state thermal transistors, enabling electrically controlled heat flow with unparalleled tunability, speed, reliability, and compatibility with integrated circuit fabrication. These innovations not only enhance thermal performance but also enable the exploration of novel transport physics, improving our fundamental understanding of thermal energy transport under extreme conditions. Looking forward, we reflect on remaining challenges and identify opportunities for further advancements. These include scaling up the production of high-performance materials, integrating thermal solutions with existing manufacturing processes, and uncovering new physics to inspire next-generation power electronics technologies. By addressing these challenges, we aim to inspire future codesign strategies that enable the development of more efficient, reliable, sustainable, and high-performance electronic systems.

Review on thermal management technologies for electronics in spacecraft environment

Significant improvements in thermal management technologies will be required to support NASA’s planned Lunar and Mars missions. The developments needed include the application of advanced materials to reduce radiator system masses, enhanced survivability, and the use of alternative working fluids. Current thermal management systems utilize one of two heat rejection alternatives; either single phase pumped loops, or two phase heat pipes constructed with thick walled metal casings. These two technologies have proven themselves to be reliable performers in the transport and rejection of waste heat from spacecraft. As thermal management needs increase with increased power consumption and activity required on spacecraft, these metal based thermal management systems will become mission limiting. Investigations into the use of light weight ceramic materials for high temperature thermal management systems have been conducted by NASA, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense since the early 1980s, with results showing that significant mass savings can be obtained by replacing some of the metallic functions with ceramic materials.

The cooling or thermal management issues are facing critical challenges with the continuous miniaturization and rapid increase of heat flux of electronic devices. Significant efforts have been made to develop high-efficient cooling and flexible thermal management solutions and corresponding design tools. This article reviews the latest progress and the state-of-the-art in electronic cooling, which could help inspire future research. The commonly used methods in electronic cooling, classified into direct and indirect cooling, are reviewed and discussed in detail. Direct cooling consists of air cooling, spray and jet impingement cooling, immersion cooling, and droplet electrowetting. As for indirect cooling, the most popular and hot topics of using microchannel, heat pipe, vapour chamber, thermoelectric, and PCM are overviewed. The effectiveness of the thermal management methods for different-level requirements of electronic cooling and the ways how heat transfer capability can be improved are also introduced in detail. Meanwhile, the pros and cons of these thermal management methods are discussed based on their inherent heat transfer performances/characteristics, optimisation methods, and relevant applications. In addition, the current challenges of electronic cooling and thermal management technologies are explored, along with the outlook of possible future advances.

Originally published in IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technology Vol. 20 No. 2. IEEE holds all copyright of this article. IEEE allows the final published version of author's own work to be deposited in institutional repositories.

CBERS 3&4, China-Brazil Earth Resource Satellites, projected for 3 years of remote sensing mission in Sun Synchronous orbit, are at the present under development. Brief description of satellites is given. On September of 2009 the thermal balance test (TBT) of the full-scale thermal model (TM) of the satellite CBERS3&4 was performed. During the TBT, seven modes of satellite operation were reproduced; they include cold and hot steady-state and transient cases, surviving and specific modes of operation. Analysis of obtained data has demonstrated the thermal design is qualified. In this paper the main results of TBT are presented. TM layout, TBT configuration and phases simulated are given. Two thermal mathematical models (TMM) were used in parallel for the satellite thermal design validation by the test results; their descriptions, main results of simulation and correlation are presented. Lessons learned include observations on the TBT campaign as well as for TMM features and correlations are also included.