Solid State Power Generation in the Thermal Protection System of Hypersonic Vehicles
Date of Award
12-12-2024
Degree Name
M.S. in Aerospace Engineering
Department
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Advisor/Chair
Rydge Mulford
Abstract
Modern aircraft are overburdened by electrical systems, which are continually increasing their power demands. To generate power on aircraft flying in high speed regimes where high temperatures are imposed by viscous heating, solid state devices can be employed. The high temperature gradient across the thermal protection system of the aircraft creates an ideal environment for thermoelectric generator (TEG) application. The North American X-15 was chosen for its high speed fight profiles and wealth of information available. The fight profiles and geometry will be used to gather data in a more applied sense. One-dimensional codes have been written to model the system’s performance over the course of a specified fight profile. Utilizing generic relations, the flow temperature was determined through radiative equilibrium methods, which was then fed to the remaining system. The performance of the system was evaluated over the X-15 high speed mission fight profile. The thicknesses of each component of the system were varied until an optimal range was found. The optimal values found were used as the basis for the remaining computational modeling and physical testing. A high-fidelity modeling effort has been completed to model both the high temperature flow and the transient thermoelectric generator operation. The high temperature flow model is solved in parallel with a conduction heat transfer model of the vehicle skin. This allows the flow and solid bodies to react to one another throughout the transient operation. The models are loosely coupled to a high-fidelity model of a thermoelectric generator. The specific TEG model has been constructed to represent a physical module that was obtained for the physical test articles. Accompanying the computational modeling, two physical test articles have been developed and studied. The first consists of a single TEG stack consisting of a skin material, the TEG, and a heat sink. The second test article includes multiple TEGs within stack consisting of a skin material, TEG, and one of two thermal management devices. The thermal management devices under study were geometrically identical blocks of either aluminum or phase change material. The specific TEGs included in the physical test have been digitally replicated to ensure continuity between models. Before any testing, each individual TEG was labeled, and its performance tested to identify any performance behaviors. Testing was conducted such that the individual TEG performance is benchmarked in steady state operation before testing a larger array of TEGs. This larger array has been subjected to transient heating conditions which are representative of the sampled X-15 fight profile.
Keywords
Thermoelectric, Power Generation, Hypersonic, Aerothermal Heating, Viscous Heating, Waste Heat Conversion, Solid State
Rights Statement
Copyright © 2024, author.
Recommended Citation
Schaiper, Spencer Gregory, "Solid State Power Generation in the Thermal Protection System of Hypersonic Vehicles" (2024). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 7486.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/graduate_theses/7486
