Abstract: To improve the radiation heat flux in the droplet layer of liquid droplet radiator, a 3D unsteady radiation heat transfer model of the rectangular droplet radiator was established. The radiation heat transfer process of droplet layer was simulated by FLUENT. The influence and sensitivity of droplet distribution characteristics, initial droplet temperature, flow rate, droplet spacing, diameter, droplet length and mass flow rate on the radiation heat flux of droplet layer were analyzed numerically. A new droplet layer structure,hollow droplet layer，was proposed. Results show that apart from flight time and mass flow rate, droplet spacing and initial temperature have great influence on the heat transfer power of the droplet layer of radiator. Under the condition that the number of droplet layers in the thickness direction is 100 and the mass flow rate is 12 kg/s, the design of hollow droplet layer can increase the heat flux per unit mass by 23 times.

Key words: liquid droplet, radiator, thermal control, heat flux, numerical model, structural design