Thermal emission cooling of aircraft elements. Review of modern studies

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review the current state of research in the field of thermal emission cooling and the feasibility study effect and to highlight their potential applications in astronautics and rocket science, especially for reusable spacecraft and high-speed aircraft. The article summarizes the results of the work of several research groups from several universities in Russia, the USA and China. It discusses theoretical models and experimental developments of thermal emission cooling technology, without going into detailed methodologies. The main research in this area is carried out by teams from the universities of Michigan, Colorado, Vermont and Texas in the USA with the active support of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Experimental studies of this technology are already being actively carried out at these universities. Moreover, the results already obtained correlate well with the results of theoretical study, from which we can conclude about the prospects of research. The effect of thermoelectronic emission makes it possible to reduce the temperature of the leading edges of the spacecraft, which is especially important for reusable spacecraft and unmanned missions, where maintaining the optimal temperature of components becomes a key factor in the service life and reliability of the system.

Keywords

• thermal emission cooling
• thermoelectronic emission
• thermal loads
• reusable spacecraft