%0 Journal Article %A Yang, Guang %A Zhang, Liangjun %A Wu, Jingyi %A Huang, Yiye %A Cai, Aifeng %D 2018 %I Begell House %K thermal cycling test, temperature uniformity, turbulent mixed convection, buoyancy, rectangular cavity %N 3 %P 255-273 %R 10.1615/HeatTransRes.2018019407 %T ANALYSIS OF TRANSIENT TEMPERATURE FIELD CHARACTERISTICS INSIDE A LARGE-SCALE THERMAL CYCLING TEST CAVITY FOR SPACECRAFT %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/46784ef93dddff27,4ba7f41800ddf720,7b14d9f814cddaf8.html %V 49 %X The transient temperature field characteristics inside the test cavity of a large-scale thermal cycling test system for space-craft were investigated by numerical simulation as well as experiments conducted in a full-scale system. The temperature profile in a cooling or heating process was found to be strongly affected by the buoyancy force. The temperature profile was vertically stratified if buoyancy assisted the inlet flow while it was unstable if the buoyancy opposed the inlet flow. The influences of inlet flow rate (4 × 103 ≤ Re ≤ 1 × 105), cooling or heating rate (± 3 K/min ≤ Δ ≤ ± 20 K/min), and thermal conductivity of the solid walls (0 ≤ ks ≤ ∞) on the temperature uniformity, heating/cooling efficiency, and energy losses were also investigated in detail, providing useful parameters for the design and operation of large-scale thermal cycling test systems at high temperature differences. %8 2018-02-21