The work described herein addresses the thermal performance of three concepts for thermal energy storage as applied to solar dynamic applications. It is recognized that designs providing large thermal gradients or large temperature swings during orbit are susceptible to early mechanical failure. Concepts incorporating heat pipe technology may encounter operational limitations over sufficiently large ranges. By reviewing the thermal performance of basic designs the relative merits of the basic concepts are to be compared. In addition, the effect of thermal enhancement and metal utilization as applied to each design provides a partial characterization of the performance improvements to be achieved by developing these technologies.
Issue Section:
Research Papers
This content is only available via PDF.
Copyright © 1991
by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
You do not currently have access to this content.