变重力条件下低温推进剂贮箱自增压与热分层建模及其特性研究

Modeling and Analysis of Self-pressurization and Thermal Stratification in Cryogenic Propellant Tanks under Variable Gravity

  • 摘要: 低温推进剂贮箱会经历停放、升空、入轨、滑行、返回等过程,其间重力加速度水平发生显著变化。在变重力加速度情况下,贮箱内气液两相介质的热力学状态是低温贮箱系统设计和运行最关心的内容之一。本文通过Python编程构建了常重力和变重力条件下贮箱内部的传热及热力学模型,耦合了推进剂工质气相、液相以及贮箱壁面区域,并结合Crank-Nicolson半隐式求解方法,实现了对贮箱内部自增压及热分层的准确预测,其中压力计算值与实验值偏差均低于3%,热分层计算结果偏差度在1%以内。仿真结果表明,在箭体变重力飞行过程中,重力加速度动态变化显著影响贮箱热工特性。微重力下贮箱压力增长减缓,且重力加速度越接近零,压力增长速率越小;恢复常重力时,压力上升迅速。气液相温度在重力变化阶段波动明显,在超重力和重力恢复段分别出现小幅降低和升高,且越靠近气枕区上方温度变化更明显。在变重力条件下,液相与壁面的对流换热功率高于气相。超重力向微重力过渡时,换热功率显著下降,且重力加速度趋近于零时功率最小值亦接近零。微重力恢复至常重力过程中,气液相换热功率出现瞬间陡增后回落的现象,且初始重力越小波动幅度越大,这可能是导致系统内压力与温度波动的主要原因。

     

    Abstract: Cryogenic propellant tanks undergo multiple mission phases—such as ground hold, ascent, orbital flight, coasting, settling, and re-entry—during which the gravitational acceleration can vary dramatically. The resulting changes in gravity have a strong influence on the thermal and thermodynamic behavior of the two-phase fluid inside the tank, which is critical for reliable design and operation of cryogenic storage systems. This work develops a comprehensive numerical model in Python to simulate heat transfer and thermodynamic processes within the tank under both constant and varying gravity conditions. The model incorporates the gas phase, liquid phase, and tank wall regions in a fully integrated framework and employs a Crank–Nicolson semi-implicit method to ensure numerical stability and accuracy. The simulation accurately reproduces experimental observations, with pressure prediction errors below 3% and thermal stratification deviations within 1%. Simulation results reveal that dynamic gravity variations substantially alter the tank’s thermal characteristics: Pressure growth slows under microgravity; as the gravitational acceleration approaches zero, the pressurization rate further diminishes, whereas once normal gravity is restored, the pressure rises rapidly. The gas and liquid regions experience pronounced temperature fluctuations during gravity transitions, showing slight decreases under hyper gravity and increases when normal gravity is restored, with the variations becoming more significant in the upper regions of the ullage. Under variable-gravity conditions, the convective heat transfer power between the liquid phase and the tank wall is higher than that of the vapor phase. During the transition from hypergravity to microgravity, the heat transfer power decreases significantly, and as the gravitational acceleration approaches zero, the minimum heat transfer power also approaches zero. During the recovery from microgravity to normal gravity, a transient sharp increase followed by a decrease in the vapor–liquid heat transfer power is observed. Moreover, the smaller the initial gravitational acceleration, the larger the fluctuation amplitude, which may be an important cause of pressure and temperature oscillations within the system.

     

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