ANSYS Thermal Analysis

[thwhite]

Using ANSYS FEA to support hand thermal calculations.

[thwhite]

Current status:

• Rough satellite model is complete! Need slightly more accurate material properties - I am uncertain, for example, about the heat capacity of lithium polymer batteries.
• Some mesh fixing to be done to make sure that body interfaces are being modeled right.
• BUT preliminary results exist!

[thwhite]

Conclusion so far: the ANSYS model agrees with the final expected temperature of the body with the hand calculations. However, the modeling of the thermal transient involved suggests that there is non-zero hope that the outside structure of the satellite may insulate the batteries for some period of time. Key variable involved remains material properties, which are also the next large area of work.

[thwhite]

Next steps:

• More accurate material properties.
• Better initial condition modeling - expected temperature equilibrium?
• Mesh resolution.