Ground experimental research on autonomous thermal control of single-phase fluid loop for micro or mini spacecraft

Single-phase fluid loop is an important means to solve thermal control problem of micro or mini spacecraft, however, high adaptive control ability is required due to its high power density internal heat source and complex changing orbital thermal environment. To meet the need of carrying out experimental research on single-phase fluid loop autonomous thermal control for micro or mini spacecrafts, a kind of PWM control strategy and algorithm implementation on single-phase fluid loop core component-micro mechanical pump are proposed, and ground equivalent simulation experiment equipment is designed and built. Then, the experimental research an open-loop dynamic characteristics including input-output relationship testing between micro mechanical pump driving voltage and pressure difference, heat source payload change and micro mechanical pump speed change is performed for a single-phase fluid loop. On the basis of this, ground equivalent simulation experiment research on control effect of the proposed single-phase fluid loop autonomous control method is completed, and autonomous temperature control effect of ±0.5°C is achieved. Besides achieving high accuracy autonomous temperature control effect, the control strategy can reduce thermal control system energy consumption due to its micro mechanical pump power consumption basically proportional to heat source payload, and has broad application prospects on micro or mini spacecrafts with limited energy supply.