Missile Fin Heat Pipe Cooling

The main objective of this project was to determine if heat pipe technology could be used to cool the portion of a missile's control surfaces heated by hot exhaust gas. The goal was to reduce the heat conducted into the body of the missile and its actuation rod. The small portion of the airfoil near the missile body heated by the exhaust plume is to be cooled by rejecting the heat to the large portion of the fin moving through ambient air. It is a ground- to-ground missile with a maximum speed of about Mach 0.75, but the evaporator will see exhaust gas (after shock) at mach 0.89 and 1213 K. The heat pipe was built inside a NACA 0015 airfoil of chord length 0.1143 m, the first 0.05 m of the fin will be heated by the exhaust plume. The report summarizes the aerodynamic heat and cooling approximations used, basic heat pipe theory, design specifications for the missile fin test article, transient heat pipe start-up calculations, experimental setup and testing of the proof-of-concept test article.Air Force Research Lab Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Missile Fin Heat Pipe Cooling' with ISBN 9781423555872 and ISBN 1423555872.