Detailed thermal analysis of a spacecraft requires information of all of the heat sources (solar, Earth albedo and IR, internal power, etc.), along with the geometry of the spacecraft with respect to the heat sources (Sun, Earth, other relevant celestial bodies), the geometry of the spacecraft itself (a 3D model), the spacecraft material properties, and the current spacecraft orientation/attitude.
STK can address all of these components at a level sufficient for early mission design and trade studies:
- The Space Environment and Effects Tool (SEET) enables you to calculate the mean equilibrium temperature of the spacecraft.
- The SOLIS plugin offers a 2D finite-element thermal analysis that enables you to create an N Plate spacecraft model, which is perfect for capturing large surfaces of the spacecraft such as solar panels, body panels, and subsystems. The model also shows how the spacecraft sections are connected.
- You can extract the spacecraft position, spacecraft orientation, and vectors to the Sun and Earth expressed in the spacecraft body frame from STK's data providers or through SOLIS's data providers.
For more detailed thermal analysis, you should employ software specifically designed for purpose, such as Ansys' thermal modeling tools. These typically include:
- A full, 3D model of the spacecraft with all of the material properties, including how the components are connected to one another
- Consideration of more advanced effects, such as spacecraft component shadowing and heat from reflected light by spacecraft components via ray tracing
These types of analyses enable you to see detailed variations across the spacecraft components, but they need as input the magnitude and direction of external heat sources, which STK can accurately provide.
Attached is a zip folder containing:
- A word document explaining the equations and the steps to extract the information from STK data providers or from SOLIS in a CSV format
- An example spreadsheet showing how to take the CSV data and transform it into the flux values needed
- A report style containing the data providers needed to make the flux calculations, which you can copy to your user area (normally C:\Users\username\Documents\STK 11 (x64)\Config\Styles\Satellite) or the scenario folder
- A word document explaining step-by-step instructions to create a flux file in SOLIS for use in Ansys Mechanical
- An example spreadsheet with flux data for use in Ansys Mechanical
