This book provides recommendations for thermal and structural modelling of spacecraft structures for predicting thermoelastic responses. It touches upon the related aspects of the finite element and thermal lumped parameter method. A mix of theoretical and practical examples supports the modelling guidelines. Starting from the system needs of instruments of spacecraft, the reader is supported with the development of the practical requirements for the joint development of the thermal and structural models. It provides points of attention and suggestions to check the quality of the models.
The temperature mapping problem, typical for spacecraft thermoelastic analysis, is addressed. The principles of various temperature mapping methods are presented. The prescribed average temperature method, co-developed by the authors, is discussed in detail together with its spin-off to provide high quality conductors for thermal models.
The book concludes with the discussion of the application of uncertainty assessment methods. The thermoelastic analysis chain is computationally expensive. Therefore, the 2k+1 point estimate method of Rosenblueth is presented as an alternative for the Monte Carlo Simuation method, bringing stochastic uncertainty analysis in reach for large thermoelastic problems.
Jaap Wijker retired from Dutch Space B.V in 2009. As associate professor he lectured from 1992-2010 Spacecraft Structures at the Technical University Delft, the Netherlands. He was member of several working groups within the frame of the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) creating several standards and handbooks; Structural Requirement, Buckling of Structures, Spacecraft Mechanical Loads Analysis Handbook. He is still a member of the IHS-Markit (ESDU) committee “Vibrations and Acoustic Fatigue”. He wrote four books with Springer: “Mechanical Vibration in Spacecraft Design”, “Spacecraft Structures”, “Random Vibrations in Spacecraft Design” and “Miles’ Equations in Random Vibrations”.
Simon Appel has 35-year experience as senior structural and thermal engineer in spacecraft engineering of which already 20 years as a consultant of ATG Europe to the European Space Agency. He has been supporting several spacecraft and technology development projects for the European Space Agency. Thermoelastic problems were a recurring topic in the career of Simon Appel. Besides his work on general spacecraft structural engineering simulations, he presented several papers on thermoelastic problems during conferences and workshops. Simon Appel is the main coordinator of the “European Working Group on Thermo Elastic” aiming to develop guidelines for the European space industry for thermoelastic verification.
