Thermo-chemical and structural analysis of integrated thermal protection system for a space vehicle

Abstract

The Thermal Protection System, or TPS, is the layer that shields spacecraft from the extreme aerodynamic heating that occurs during re-entry and launch. We proposed an optimized design of an Integrated Thermal Protection System (ITPS) in this paper. An ITPS provides thermal protection as well as structural load-bearing capability. Thermo-chemical simulations are carried out with the help of the Fully Implicit Ablation and Thermal response program (FIAT) for better understanding of the thermo-chemical behavior of the system under the extreme conditions of a space vehicle. Similarly, a structural analysis is performed to determine the structural integrity of the proposed ITPS design. Both the thermo-chemical and structural analyses show that the proposed corrugated-core sandwich structure is viable in terms of recession, pyrolysis, and structural integrity.