Lightweight Long Life Heat Exchanger

Abstract

A shuttle orbiter flight configuration aluminum heat exchanger was designed, fabricated, and tested. The heat exchanger utilized aluminum clad titanium composite parting sheets for protection against parting sheet pin hole corrosion. The heat exchanger, which is fully interchangeable with the shuttle condensing heat exchanger, includes slurpers (a means for removing condensed water from the downstream face of the heat exchanger), and both the core air passes and slurpers were hydrophilic coated to enhance wettability. The test program included performance tests which demonstrated the adequacy of the design and confirmed the predicted weight savings.