From: dsr-usenet@randomstring.org   
      
   On 2021-01-08, Adam Warnock  wrote:   
   > On Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 8:26:19 PM UTC-6, Arthur T. wrote:   
   >> In   
   >> Message-ID:<93b1206d-bb1c-4281...@googlegroups.com>,   
   >> Adam Warnock  wrote:   
   >>   
   >> >Hello, new here and all that jazz. I'm working on a space opera setting   
   and one of the things I'm curious about are the materials that could be used   
   to make a radiator. I have an idea on how warship radiators operate, but I'm   
   trying not to break more    
   rules than I need to.   
   >> >   
   >> >Basically, the radiators are flexible and can be rolled up into armored   
   compartments to protect them from hostile fire. When deployed, ribbing in the   
   panels stiffens to keep them from flopping about. Are there any materials that   
   can be rigid in one    
   set of circumstances, but flexible in another? Is this even plausible?   
   >> Again, this is just my opinion, but why not explain what you just did   
   >> and not go into the mechanics of it, unless it's important to your   
   >> plot or world building? If it doesn't sound implausible, which it   
   >> doesn't, I'd accept it. But an attempt to explain it, in detail, will   
   >> get me thinking about it and possibly take me out of my willing   
   >> suspension of disbelief.   
   >   
   > Y'know, pneumatics/hydralics would would make things simpler than using some   
   supermaterial. And the point about info-dumping (especially with bad   
   explanations) is duly noted. I wanted to know so that even if it never came   
   up, I had a solid foundation    
   to build details around.   
      
      
   A radiator is a heat-exchange mechanism, and in space, it doesn't get to use   
   any mechanism except radiation. So you want lots of surface area.   
      
   Inside that surface area, you want maximally efficient heat distribution, and   
   you get to set the mechanism. There are quite a few liquids which are good at   
   heat transfer, and while water is not the best such liquid, it has lots of   
   other uses on [human, at least] ships.   
      
   Have your panels unroll as hot water floods through the embedded pipework. You   
   want panels to be at right angles to each other so that they don't radiate   
   back on to each other. The water pressure can serve as the stiffening feature.   
   Don't let them freeze, unless you want it to be a plot point.   
      
   If solar panels are useful, you want the radiators at right angles to the   
   solar panels, and possibly in their shadows. See the ISS layout.   
      
   -dsr-   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)