The design of integrated and highly efficient solutions for thermal management is a key capability for different aerospace products, ranging from civil aircraft using hydrogen on board to miniaturized satellites. In particular, this paper discloses a novel numerical tool for the design and thermal performance assessment of heat pipes. To achieve this goal, a numerical Ansys Parametric Design Language code is set up to verify the effective subtractive heat flux guaranteed by the selected heat pipe arrangement. The methodology and related tool show their ability to provide good thermal performance estimates for different heat pipe designs and operating conditions. Specifically, the paper reports two very different test cases: (1) solid metal heat pipes to cool down the crotch leading-edge area of the air intake of a Mach 8 civil passenger aircraft, and (2) a copper-water heat pipe to cool down a Printed Circuit Board of a generic small LEO satellite. The successful application of the methodology and numerical code confirms the achievement of the ambitious goal of developing in-house tools to support heat pipe thermal performance prediction for the entire aerospace domain.

This paper discloses the architecture and related performance of an environment control system designed to be integrated within a complex multi-functional thermal and energy management system that manages the heat loads and generation of electric power in a hypersonic vehicle by benefitting from the presence of cryogenic liquid hydrogen onboard. A bleed-less architecture implementing an open-loop cycle with a boot-strap sub-freezing air cycle machine is suggested. Hydrogen boil-off reveals to be a viable cold source for the heat exchangers of the system as well as for the convective insulation layer designed around the cabin walls. Including a 2 mm boil-off convective layer into the cabin cross-section proves to be far more effective than a more traditional air convective layer of approximately 60 mm. The application to STRATOFLY MR3, a Mach 8 waverider cruiser using liquid hydrogen as propellant, confirmed that presence of cryogenic tanks provides up to a 70% reduction in heat fluxes entering the cabin generated outside of it but inside the vehicle, by the propulsive system and other onboard systems. The effectiveness of the architecture was confirmed for all Mach numbers (from 0.3 to 8) and all flight altitudes (from sea level to 35 km).

Re-entry winged body vehicles have several advantages w.r.t capsules, such as maneuverability and controlled landing opportunity. On the other hand, they show an increment in design level complexity, especially from an aerodynamic, aero-thermodynamic, and structural point of view, and in the difficulties of housing in operative existing launchers. In this framework, the idea of designing unmanned vehicles equipped with deployable wings for suborbital flight was born. This work details a preliminary study for identifying the best configuration for the hinge system aimed at the in-orbit deployment of an unmanned re-entry vehicle’s wings. In particular, the adopted optimization methodology is described. The adopted approach uses a genetic algorithm available in commercial software in conjunction with fully parametric models created in FEM environments and, in particular, it can optimize the hinge position considering both the deployed and folded configuration. The results identify the best hinge configuration that minimizes interface loads, thus, realizing a lighter and more efficient deployment system. Indeed, for such a category of vehicle, it is mandatory to reduce the structural mass, as much as possible in order to increase the payload and reduce service costs.