Numerical and Experimental Modeling of the Effect of Seam Schemes on Thermal Performance of Multilayer Insulations

One of the challenges in design and construction of satellites is the variation of heat fluxes over the body. Multilayer insulation is used to reduce the impact of environment on the satellite. The connection type of insulation blankets has a considerable effect on the thermal performance. In this paper, the effect of sewing patterns on the thermal performance of multilayer insulators is investigated. The main purpose of this study is to determine the conditions under which the minimum effective emittance coefficient and heat flux of multilayer insulations can be obtained. In this regard, several stitching joint patterns have been modeled and the layer-by-layer model is identified as the best bonding scheme for the insulation blankets. Moreover, the experimental data on no-seam and layer-by-layer patterns are used to validate the numerical models. Deviation of numerical results from experimental data is less than 9%. The effects of the number of layers, thickness and properties of the materials are analyzed. Moreover, due to the temperature cycle in the space, both hot and cold conditions are considered. The results indicate that the layer-by-layer joint pattern with 12 layers has the best thermal performance, i.e. in hot cycle the heat flux and emission coefficient are 2.0216 W / m2 and 0.003653, and in cold cycle the heat flux and emission coefficient are 2.36 W / m2 and 0.004784, respectively.