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Study on propellant management device in plate surface tension tanks

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Abstract

Surface tension tanks exploit the liquid surface tension in liquid transport and gas–liquid separation to provide gas-free propellant for the thruster. High transport efficiency of deflectors can ensure liquid relocation in the microgravity environment within a short period of time, which is helpful for providing gas-free propellant. This paper explores transport efficiency of deflectors through drop tower experiments and numerical simulations with the volume of fluid method. The experimental and numerical results show that both the liquid flow speed and the mass flow rate along deflectors increase as the widths of deflectors increase. Besides, a new type of propellant management device, which consists of four deflectors and four anti-sloshing baffles, is verified with numerical simulations and drop tower experiments. Moreover, long-term conditions are predicted by using similarity theories. These results can provide important references for the design of plate tanks.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the China Manned Space Engineering Program (Fluid Physics Experimental Rack and the Priority Research Program of Space Station) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant XDB23030300).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Microgravity, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Shangtong Chen, Li Duan & Qi Kang

  2. School of Engineering Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shangtong Chen, Li Duan & Qi Kang

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  1. Shangtong Chen
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  2. Li Duan
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  3. Qi Kang
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Correspondence to Qi Kang.

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Executive Editor: Jinjun Wang.

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Chen, S., Duan, L. & Kang, Q. Study on propellant management device in plate surface tension tanks. Acta Mech. Sin. 37, 1498–1508 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-021-01121-y

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