Study On The Spacesuit Drying Equipment For Underwater Training

The spacesuit for training under is specially designed equipment for astronaut training inthe neutral buoyancy tank. The operation in buoyancy tank is an easy way to simulate amicrogravity space environment. When the practice is over, the spacesuit should be driedquickly to be protected and stored better. Because of the high technology and cost, a suitabledrying method should be selected, including the control of the drying temperature and airspeed.The nature of any drying is the process of that the water is heated and evaporation. It canbe abstracted as the heat and mass transfer process of porous media. The major factor for thedrying is the evaporating speed of the surface moisture and the speed of the migration to thesurface for the spacesuit internal moisture. Based on that, this thesis designed reasonabledrying scheme, and find out a suitable related parameters for drying.Two types of drying scheme were designed and discussed in this thesis. One of this isenclosed chamber with heat pump drying system, and another one is open hot compressed airdrying system. The feasibility and energy consumption of the systems were analyzed. Theopen hot compressed air scheme was adopted for its better safety. Whole equipment based onpneumatic system and compressed air was developed and used in practice successfully.Both systems were simulated by the ANSYS CFX. The velocity distribution, temperaturefield and moisture content in the different time and different parameters were obtained. Thispaper designed the detail date of the speed of nozzle and gas temperature in the differentchassis rotation speed and the vertical cylinder lifting speed. All numerical simulation resultswere validated by experiments.Simulation and experimental research shows that enclosed chamber with heat pumpdryer is more energy saving. The power of open hot compressed air dryer is9kW. The dryingtime is about1hour, the best dry outlet temperature is about60℃, speed is5m/s, drydistance is15cm, vertical cylinder lifting speed is0.15m/s and turntable speed is0.14rad/sfor the open hot compressed air dryer.