Experimental analysis of heat and mass transfer in non-isothermal sloshing using a model-based inverse method

TL;DR

This paper experimentally investigates heat and mass transfer during non-isothermal liquid sloshing in a cryogenic fluid, using a model-based inverse method to derive transfer coefficients and analyze thermodynamic evolution.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental approach combined with a 0D inverse model to characterize heat and mass transfer in non-isothermal sloshing, applicable to spacecraft thermal management.

Findings

Pressure drop of 90% observed in swirling sloshing.

Model accurately predicts thermodynamic evolution with derived transfer coefficients.

Thermal de-stratification significantly affects pressure and temperature fluctuations.

Abstract

Nonisothermal liquid sloshing in partially filled reservoirs can significantly enhance heat and mass transfer between liquid and ullage gasses. This can result in large temperature and pressure fluctuations, producing thrust oscillations in spacecraft and challenging thermal management control systems. This work presents an experimental characterization of the thermodynamic evolution of a cylindrical reservoir undergoing sloshing-induced thermal de-stratification. We use a 0D model-based inverse method to retrieve the heat and mass transfer coefficients in planar and swirl sloshing conditions from the temperature and pressure measurements in the liquid and the ullage gas. The experiments were carried out in the SHAKESPEARE shaking table of the von Karman Institute in a cuboid quartz cell with a cylindrical cut-out of 80 mm diameter in the centre, filled up to 60mm with the cryogenic replacement fluid HFE-7200. A thermal stratification with 25 K difference between the ullage gas and liquid was set as the initial conditions. A pressure drop of 90% in the ullage gas was documented in swirling conditions. Despite its simplicity, the model could predict the system's thermodynamic evolution once the proper transfer coefficients were derived.