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Description of Thesis Topic 

A thermal model is needed for the battery assembly which will assess the operation of heaters within the battery housing, and an estimate of the duty cycles of such heaters. Additionally, the battery model will be used in conjunction with the entire spacecraft thermal model to assess the thermal environment of the batteries. The analysis will either confirm the current design or propose plausible means of improving the thermal design. The IDEAS software tool, must be used which will require some amount of learning.
The thermal model will be validated by comparison with values from actual testing of the battery during charge and discharge. Part of the study will be to define the test setup and operation; perform the test; and provide conclusions and recommendations.

Proposed Outline

• NPSAT1 Introduction
• Battery Design
• Spacecraft Environment
• Overview of Thermal Analysis and Modeling
• Battery Thermal Model
• Thermal Analysis Results and Validation through Test
• Conclusions & Recommendations

Suggested References

• Spacecraft Thermal Control Handbook, D. W. Gilmore, ed., Aerospace Corp., 2002.
• Computer Aided Thermal Analysis of a Technology Demonstration Satellite (NPSAT1), Martin Gruhlke, NPS Technical Report, NPS-SP-03-001, Monterey, California, 2003.
• I-DEAS Thermal Model Generator (TMG) Reference, (I-DEAS on-line documentation).
• IDEAS Master Series Student Guide, SDRC, Milford, OH, 1994