Thermal Analysis &

Design
Altu Okan, MSc
22 Oct 2014, TBTAK UZAY
Copyright 2014 by TUBITAK UZAY.
All rights reserved.
1

OUTLINE
Course Objectives
Introduction to Thermal Design and
Thermal Control Subsystem
Heat Transfer Basics
Hands-on exercise

22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

COURSE OBJECTIVES
The participants will;
be aware of necessity of thermal control
learn heat transfer basics
perform basic thermal analysis
including trade-offs related to satellite
configuration
discuss analysis results with each other.
22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

INTRODUCTION
First artificial satellite Sputnik was launched by
Russians in 4 October 1957.
Hermetic satellite, air inside and had no clue about
space environment.
Spacecraft environment
Vacuum
Temperature Extremes
(From solar max to radiation to almost absolute Zero temperature)
Radiation
...

Most effective space environment effect is the

orbital heat fluxes under vacuum conditions.
Temperature of each component in the spacecraft
must be within defined, tolerable limits which
could be handled by Thermal Control Subsystem
22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

SPACECRAFT THERMAL ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Heat Loads

Solar Flux (1326 1417 W/m2 depending on seasons)
Albedo (Reflected portion of the incoming Solar Flux, typically
%30 of Solar)
Earth Infrared Emission (IR Emission of the Earth at 255K =
~240W/m2)

Heat Dissipation
Batteries
Other Electronic Equipments

Radiation to Space
Infrared emission from exterior surfaces of spacecraft

22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

ENERGY BALANCE
Aim;
QSun + QAlb + QEarth + Qinternal QSpace = 0
where
QSpace is radiation of spacecraft exterior surfaces
to deep space with 4th power of each external
surfaces.
Deep space temperature is about 4 K (~269C)
and behaves as heat sink and black body
(perfect absorption/emission)
Finally;
The temperatures of any spacecraft equipment
shall stay within allowable limits after heat in
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and
22 Oct
2014 out is balanced.
Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

INTRODUCTION Thermal Design & Thermal Control

Thermal
Design
and Analysis

Mathemati
cal
Model

Thermal
vacuum/bala
nce tests

Thermal Control
Subsystem
22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

HEAT TRANSFER BASICS

Heat transfer mechanisms

Conduction
Convection
Radiation

Conduction is the way of heat transfer within spacecraft

subsystems/equipment.

Convection is negligible in space, but used in launch vehicle

spacecraft coupling during launch.

Radiation is the major heat transfer mechanism for balancing

heat in space. It is also good way of heat transfer within
spacecraft subsystems/equipment for high temperature
differences.
22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

HEAT CONDUCTION
One dimensional heat flow (x-> )
[Fourier, 1822]
Qx= -k*A*(dT/dx)
Qx : Heat flux in x-axis (W) ,
k
A
T
x

:
:
:
:

conduction coefficient (W/(m*K)) ,

conductance area (m2) ,
temperature (K) ,
Distance in x direction.
Ki,j
i
j
i
Qi,j= Qx

Qx k A
j

Qi,j

Conduction Heat Transfer

Equation
22 Oct 2014

dT
dx

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

Q
i, j

k i , j A ci , j
L i ,j

Tj Ti

THERMAL RADIATION - Basics

All materials greater than 0 K transfers heat via thermal radiation

In electromagnetic spectrum, thermal radiation covers 0.1 100 m
of wavelength

Black body is the ideal body that emits and absorbs all the energy in
all wavelengths and defined by Boltzmann rule:
E = T4
: Stefan-Boltzmann constant( = 5.6696*10-8 W/(m2*K4) ),
T : Surface temperature (K).
In reality, there is no ideal surface (black body)
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Workshop on
emitting/absorbing
100%
of its UZAY
energy.
22 Oct 2014
Small Satellite Engineering and
10
Design

THERMAL RADIATION Real Surfaces

Real Surfaces, (Emissivity)
= Ereal surf / Eblack
Total Energy transfer

Reflected,
(*E)

surf

Ereal surf=
T4

Incoming
flux, E

++
=1

Absorbed,
(*E)
Transmitted,
(*E)
22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

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THERMAL RADIATION View and Radiation Exch.

Factors

View Factor (Radiation Exchange Factor for ideal

surfaces; =1 )

Radiation Exchange Factor (for real surfaces

where <1)

22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

12

THERMAL RADIATION Radiation Exchange

i,j

i
i

j
Qi,j

Qi,j

i, j A ri i, j

Radiative Heat Transfer

Equation

Q i , j Air i , j T j4 Ti 4

where
i,j : Radiation Exchange Factor between surfaces
i and j
22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

13

HEAT TRANSFER EQUATION

(1/2)

Energy Balance
QSun + QAlb + QEarth + Qinternal QSpace = 0
Time Dependent
T

Energy Equation p t

T

T

T
k

x
x y
y z
z
Conduction and
Radiation Terms

In Orbit Temperatures of all the

satellite
22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

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HEAT TRANSFER EQUATION

Discretized Energy
Equation
n 1
n

m C
i

Ti

Ti

t

K i,j T
j

(1 )

where
m =
Cp =
=
Qi =

n 1
j

n 1
i

(2/2)

R T T Q
N

i, j

n 1 4
j

n 1 4
i

n
j

n
i

n
n
K

T
i,j
i,j j
i
j

n 1
i

n
i

mass [ kg ]
Specific Heat [ J/(kg*K) ]
num. coefficient [=1 fully-implicit, =0 fully-explicit]
heat flux coming to note i

N = number of nodes in the satellite

n = time at t; n+1 is the time at t+t

22 Oct 2014

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Small Satellite Engineering and
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15

THERMAL DESIGN REQUIREMENTS - Temperatures

Temperature Requirement of Typical Spacecraft

Equipment
Equipment
NO min (C)
Op. min (C) Op. max (C) NO max (C)
Optical Imager

13

23

40

Battery

30

30

OB Computer

-30

50

60

Other
Electronics

-30

-20

50

60

-100

-100

100

100

-50

-50

100

100

Solar Panels
Antennas
NO: Non-Operating
Op: Operating

Critical Equipment
1. The batteries must operate at preferably between 15C and 25C to
increase lifetime.
2. Optical imager optics must operate in very narrow temperature
bandwidth (5C or less) for less thermal distortion.
22 Oct 2014

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Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

16

TRADE OFF
Rule of Thumb 1
Keep everything simple: the more you increase the
complexity, the harder you analyze and solve
problems
Set up your model with isothermal nodes for each
equipment instead of Finite Element modeling with
many meshes
Use worst hot and worst cold cases to stay within
temperature limits
Always prefer commercial off the shelf coatings and
materials to keep the energy balance at moderate
temperatures.
22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

16

TRADE OFF
Rule of Thumb 2
Radiation from exterior surfaces is the key for thermal
design.
Choose appropriate coatings/tapes to keep satellite
in moderate temperatures
Equipment

IR

Optical Solar
Reflector

0.08

0.80

Solar flux rejector, Preferred for

cooling

First surface mirror

0.14

0.05

Preferred for keeping warm

0.31- 0.6

0.85-0.96

Radiatively decouples from

environment

Black Paint

0.95

0.90

Preferred for heat rejection inside

s/c

White Paint

0.20

0.85

Preferred for cooling

Solar Cells

0.70

0.70

Used in solar panel modeling

MLI*

: effective emissivity <

0.04

Remarks

22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

16

TRADE OFF
Rule of Thumb 3
Use appropriate thermal control hardware for specific
thermal problems
Thermal
Hardware
MLI
Optical Solar
Reflector
Radiator
Heat Pipe
Paints /
Coatings
Heaters
Thermostat
Sensors

22 Oct 2014

Function
Decouples radiative heat exchange
Rejects heat
Used for emitting heat to space
Acts as very high conductive material and allows
to carry heat from heat source to radiators
Cooling or keeping the energy depending on /
Helps to increase tepmerature of specific
equipment or region
Help to control heaters
Measures temperatures

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

16

Hands-on Exercise

22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

17

HANDS-ON EXERCISE CHALLANGES

Typical Thermal Design and Analysis
requires
specific modelers and pre/post processors
many details & iterations = time and
effort

Hand calculation is an option but takes too much time

Therefore, we set up affordable simple satellite model for

Hands-on Exercise

22 Oct 2014

2- node satellite model (Platform and

Payload)
Averaged input and output (steady-state
solution)
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Thermal UZAY
data,
orbital fluxes and all
Workshop on
Small
Satellite Engineering
and
21
calculations
in Excel
spreadsheet
Design

THERMAL MATHEMATICAL MODEL Node Definition

Given in the Nodes tab of the

Excel sheet

22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

22

Nod
e

Item

Platfor
m

Payload

Space

THERMAL MATHEMATICAL MODEL Heat Loads

Environment
al
Heat
Loads
Internal Heat
Generation
Given in the Heat
Excel sheet

22 Oct 2014

Assumptions
Steady-state orbital fluxes (averaged) on
each surface for worst hot and worst cold
conditions
Only environmental loads on Node 1 (since
Node 2 is the payload and should be
thermally stable and independent of
orbital heat fluctuations for thermal
stability ; = << 1 )
3 axis-stabilized
+X axis is the velocity vector
+Z of
axis
indicated the Earth
Loads tab
the

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Small Satellite Engineering and
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THERMAL MATHEMATICAL MODEL Links

Links

Formula

K1,2

k x Ac / l

1,3

x Ar x x
F1,2

Given in the Conduction and Radiation Links tab of

the Excel sheet

22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

24

THERMAL MATHEMATICAL MODEL Calculations

Discretized heat equation given in Slide 15:

m C T
i

Tin

t

n 1
i

K i,j Tjn1 Tin1 Ri,j Tjn1 Tin1

j

(1 )

n 1
i

K i,j Tjn Tin Ri,j Tjn Tin

j

n
i

is simplified to Steady-State 1D heat transfer problem

Q1,2 = Q2 = K1,2*(T2-T1)

and

Q1,3 = (Q1+Q2) = R1,3*(T14-T34)

Q1,3
which are calculated in the Results tab of the Excel sheet
Q1,2

22 Oct 2014

ISNET/TUBITAK UZAY Workshop on

Small Satellite Engineering and
Design

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