Author Topic: Heat pump to transfer liquids in zero gravity  (Read 1084 times)

Offline paulthew

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Heat pump to transfer liquids in zero gravity
« on: 04/28/2017 02:41 pm »
Rotating spacecraft to simulate gravity when transferring liquid fuel and oxygen may not be necessary.  If one were to use a heat pump system to warm one tank and simultaneously cool the other, evaporating gas in the warmer tank and condensing gas in the cooler tank should create a gaseous current, pulling fluids with it into the cooler tank.  No rotation required.  At least in theory.

Offline sevenperforce

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Re: Heat pump to transfer liquids in zero gravity
« Reply #1 on: 04/28/2017 03:31 pm »
Rotating spacecraft to simulate gravity when transferring liquid fuel and oxygen may not be necessary.  If one were to use a heat pump system to warm one tank and simultaneously cool the other, evaporating gas in the warmer tank and condensing gas in the cooler tank should create a gaseous current, pulling fluids with it into the cooler tank.  No rotation required.  At least in theory.
Presumably, ullage would still be a problem. You'd have no guarantee that the liquid itself would move.

Offline Hanelyp

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Re: Heat pump to transfer liquids in zero gravity
« Reply #2 on: 04/30/2017 12:27 am »
If the heat exchangers are at opposite ends of the tanks from the pipe connecting the tanks, the gas flow would tend to push liquid with it, reducing the quantity of fluid undergoing phase change.  But you're still moving the heat of vaporization for whatever quantity of gas is generated and then condensed.  I suspect this could be a very inefficient means of fluid transfer in most cases.

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