Thermal design of spacecraft solar arrays using a polyimide foam

[摘要] The design of the Thermal Control System (TCS) of spacecraft solar arrays plays a fundamental role. Indeed, the spacecraft components must operate within a certain range of temperature. If this doesn't occur, their performance is reduced and they may even break. Solar arrays, which are employed to recharge batteries, are directly exposed to the solar heat flux, and they need to be insulated from the earth's surface irradiation. Insulation is currently provided either with a white paint coating or with a Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) system [1]. A configuration based on an open-cell polyimide foam has also been recently proposed [2]. Using polyimide foams in TCSs looks very attractive in terms of costs, weight and assembling. An innovative thermal analysis of the above cited TCS configurations is carried out in this paper, by solving the porous media energy equation, under the assumption of Local Thermal Equilibrium (LTE) between the two phases. Radiation effects through the solar array are also considered by using the Rosseland approximation. Under a stationary daylight condition, temperature profiles are obtained by means of the finite-element based code COMSOL Multiphysics®. Finally, since the weight plays an important role in aerospace applications, weights of the three TCS configurations are compared.

[发布机构] Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale (DII), Universitá Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, P.le Tecchio, 80, Napoli; 80125, Italy^1

[效力级别] 力学 [学科分类] 力学，机械学

[关键词] Comsol multiphysics;Local thermal equilibrium;Multi-layer insulation;Rosseland approximations;Spacecraft components;Spacecraft solar arrays;Temperature profiles;Thermal control systems