An integrated hardware-in-the-loop verification approach for dual heat sink systems of aerospace single phase mechanically pumped fluid loop

Abstract Radiator-sublimator cooperative dual heat sink system (DHSS) has become the vanguard of the solutions of providing heat dissipation for on-board equipments exhausted heat augments in current and future aerospace missions. However, experimental investigation of a DHSS requires expensive cryovacuum environmental instruments with slow dynamic response in traditional methods, which is not suitable for fast real-time verifications. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposed a hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) based simulation approach for a DHSS integrated with single fluid mechanically pumped fluid loop (SFMPFL) for aerospace applications. A verification system was established in which the DHSS is equivalently simulated by a valve-controlled cooling loop while the SFMPFL is physically represented. Additionally, via designed control strategies, heat dissipating and mode switch behaviors of the DHSS could be simulated. Aiming at inspecting steady and transient thermal control performance of the DHSS experimentally, various volumetric flow rates and heat inputs (up to 1600 W) were imposed on the SFMPFL. Results show that the system provided DHSS heat dissipation and temperature control simulations with high accuracy (within maximum error 5%) and acceptable time responses, proving that the proposed approach is capable of offering credible alternatives for ground-based DHSS evaluations in a more efficient and economical way.