SPRAY-DROP SPACE RADIATOR Russian patent published in 2004 - IPC

FIELD: space vehicles equipped with nuclear power plants, mainly of high power, with conversion of the thermal energy of a nuclear reactor to the electrical one in closed loops, and namely in electrojet prime movers and nuclear rocket engines. SUBSTANCE: the spray-drop space radiator has a nozzle manifold of injection of "hot" heat-transfer fluid, collecting manifold of cooled heat-transfer fluid with a centrifugal settling drum composed of a rotor, whose shaft is installed in the stator on bearing supports, and coupled to manifold is divided into sections containing spray injectors with mutually parallel axes lying in the same plane, directed towards the neck of the collecting manifold; the length of each section is made proceeding from condition L≤Bcosα, where B - the dimension of the neck in the line of intersection of the plane of arrangement of the nozzle axes with the plane of the neck circumference, α - the angle between the direction of the nozzle axes and the axis of the collecting manifold, the orientation of the axial lines of the marking of the nozzle centers of all sections is made at such an angle to the common axial line of the manifold that the lines of intersection of the planes of arrangement of the nozzle axes of all sections with the plane of the neck circumference are uniformly distributed within the diameter of the neck circumference, and the centrifugal tapered settling drum of the collecting manifold is made integral with the impeller of the centrifugal drum positioned in the larger diameter of the drum, and the outlet from the centrifugal impeller is hydraulically connected to the outlet scroll of the pump body being a component of the stator of the collecting manifold. The invention facilitates the process of deployment of the radiator in orbit, provides uniform delivery of non-intersecting flows of liquid-drop sprays in the cross-section of the inlet neck of the collecting manifold, as well as provides delivery of the heat- transfer fluid settled in the centrifugal drum directly to the pump. EFFECT: simplified construction and enhanced reliability of operation of the collecting manifold. 5 cl, 4 dwg