Jump to content

rocket exhaust heat sink


Recommended Posts

I'm using the rocket exhaust to heat up some heat sinks and generate power.  I'm wondering what the best material is to use on the heat sinks.

I've used steel tiles on this build and next to it, i've filled in some with igneous tiles, which I'm expecting to melt when I move on to hydrogen.

My question is, which tiles are best to use to capture as much of that exhaust heat as possible?Untitled.thumb.png.9b77475d9d3d6a734128c8944f5249ad.png

Why do my dupes keep delivering Oxylite to the solid fuel tank when the rocket has already left?  Thinks this is a bug.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If everything is vacuum sealed, I don't think it really matters. Since heat won't be lost. Although this assumes that the exhaust heat is an amount of energy rather then a temperature increase.

I used Diamond.... because why not. Had to use 2 layer of Bunker tiles though, to prevent meteor damage.

Capture.thumb.PNG.0ce3084966a5fb88bbfe2549fe54771e.PNG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It doesn't much matter. The heat under the rocket is given out as raw DTUs, so material with lower SHC gets hotter. 

Igneous is pretty decent actually, as long as you expect to cool it. It may melt at 1400C instead of 2400C like steel, but steel will get 2x as hot from the same amount of energy, so which one's better? It depends on how quickly you want to harvest that heat I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of interesting options is water (actually steam when it reaches proper temperature) encased in steel/diamond tiles and some heat transfer plates inside.

Due to enormous SHC  it can accumulate a lot of energy providing steady heat flow.

Even better would be a supercoolant, but it's unrealistic setup :)

there is a video about that on youtube, though it's in Russian (sorry, i didn't find any English alternatives)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ulCQR37Qn0&list=PLZgBoU1efUISGSg-6rJKYFllo2FzS3g0y&index=3&t=0s

Link to comment
Share on other sites

31 minutes ago, Cybeon said:

One of interesting options is water (actually steam when it reaches proper temperature) encased in steel/diamond tiles and some heat transfer plates inside.

I have actually had a similar idea myself, where by either the space is filled with more and more water while it evaporates, or it could be done with ao a waterfall storage, then boxed in.  Probably former method is easier.

However, I don't think that adding 1 million tons of water is going to benefit so long as the heat can be dissipated in time before the next landing, as the heat produced from the rocket is a fixed amount and 1 million tons of water will just take forever to heat up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/8/2019 at 5:46 PM, Craigjw said:

I have actually had a similar idea myself, where by either the space is filled with more and more water while it evaporates, or it could be done with ao a waterfall storage, then boxed in.  Probably former method is easier.

However, I don't think that adding 1 million tons of water is going to benefit so long as the heat can be dissipated in time before the next landing, as the heat produced from the rocket is a fixed amount and 1 million tons of water will just take forever to heat up.

As long as you keep this thermal buffer in vacuum heat won't dissipate. And maintaining vacuum in/near space biom is not an issue at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Please be aware that the content of this thread may be outdated and no longer applicable.

×
  • Create New...