Remote Sensing Satellite Technology Workshop 2016 Nov.
28, 2016
FORMOSAT-5 THERMAL CONTROL DEVELOPMENT AND DESIGN
IMPROVEMENT ON HIGH POWER UNIT
Meng-Hao Chen, Jeng-Der Huang, Chia-Ray Chen
National Space Organization (NSPO)
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to discuss the
thermal control of FORMOSAT-5 (FS-5)
satellite. First, the development of thermal
modeling and correlation on FS-5 is described.
The modeling process uses finite differential
method and lumped-parameter approach with
numerous analysis cases to predict and
determine the temperatures and thermal
hardware allocation. With the comparison of
thermal vacuum test (TVT) data, correlation is
achieved by minimizing uncertainties in model
input and recognizing the relevant parameters
for effective model tuning. Second, the
improvement on FS-5 X-band transmitter
(XTx) is proposed with the technique of
phase-change device. It uses the material
properties of solid-liquid and liquid-vapor
phase transitions to realize heat storage and
rapid heat diffusion. The developing technique
is expected to be a favorable solution on high
heat flux unit for future space missions.
KEYWORDSFORMOSAT-5, thermal control,
phase change material (PCM), heat spreader
1. INTRODUCTION
An orbiting satellite is exposed to varying
internal and external thermal energy from
complicated space thermal environment and
unit heat dissipation. For example, a satellite
in low-earth orbit (LEO) experiences extreme
temperature swings approximately every 100
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minutes when it repeatedly passes through day
and night. In addition, the satellite must endure
the thermal cycles for thousands of times
during its operational lifetime. Hence, a well
thermal modeling and analysis are necessary in
the design phase due to the satellite is almost
impossible to be recovered or repaired in space
once it has been launched. The first topic of
this study is to discuss the thermal control
development of FORMOSAT-5 (FS-5) [1-4]. It
is an extension of FORMOSAT-2 satellite and
can provide one panchromatic band with 2
meters resolution and four multi-spectrum
bands with 4 meters resolution. It will be
operated on sun-synchronous orbit with 5
years mission lifetime.
The second topic is to introduce the
thermal design improvement on FS-5 X-band
transmitter (XTx) by using phase change
material (PCM) technique. It is an excellent
passive thermal control strategy, in cases
where the applications involve high heat flux,
low thermal inertia, cyclical operation or
thermal environments [5-6]. The expected
effectiveness of this solution is to eliminate
temperature variation of thermal hot spots. In
addition, with the combination of heat
spreader and PCM, thermal energy can be
diffused rapidly and stored in the PCM during
peak heat loads. The stored thermal energy can
then be released during lower heat loads. This
can result in a decreased radiator area and a
reduced heating power.
Remote Sensing Satellite Technology Workshop 2016 Nov. 28, 2016

2. THERMAL MODELING and solutions. From the analysis results, all the
temperatures can be controlled within their
The FS-5 thermal models are completed
allowable ranges with sufficient margin.
with the development of TRASYS (Thermal
Radiation Analyzer SYStem) and SINDA/G
(System Improved Numerical Differencing
Analyzer) codes. TRASYS models are
constructed to provide the radiation exchange
factors among all surfaces and transient orbital
heating array from the sun, albedo and earth
emission. The internal radiation conductance
and external heat flux calculated by TRASYS
models are then inserted into SINDA/G, which
takes advantage of a lump parameter approach
for conduction and radiation heat transfers. A
lumped resistance-capacitance (R-C) thermal
network model was solved by finite-difference
method following the energy balance equation.
Figure 1 Example of FS-5 thermal contours.
Based on the cold-bias design approach,
tens of cases are performed to demonstrate
overall thermal compliance. This approach
means that we use passive thermal control first
to lower all the unit temperatures under their
allowable high limit, such as multi-layer
insulation (MLI), radiator, thermal filler,
thermal isolator, surface finish and so on. The
temperature sensor and heater are then used to
raise some unit temperatures if they are below
their allowable low limit. Important thermal
parameters, such as angles, thermo-optical
properties, thermal environments and satellite
attitudes, are taken into account in these cases.
The analyses aim to ensure sufficient
radiator area and available heating power
budget. Examples of predicted temperature
distributions and orbital trending graphs are
depicted in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. The worst case
identification and critical unit thermal design
Figure 2 Example of FS-5 orbital temperature
are accomplished by proper thermal controls
trend at hot case.

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Remote Sensing Satellite Technology Workshop 2016 Nov. 28, 2016

3. THERMAL MODEL CORRELATION

This section describes the correlation

results between the thermal mathematical
models and the test observations. As shown in
Fig. 3, the satellites thermal vacuum test
(TVT) was conducted in a chamber with the
vacuum level higher than 510-5 mbar and the
surrounding temperature of -30 or -130 C.
The TVT features five phases, including
Figure 4 FS-5 bus TVT profile.
pump-down, thermal cycling, performance test,
thermal balance and transient cool-down. Hot
and cold balance test data are used to verify
the models conductive coupling, radiative
coupling and power dissipations. The phase of
transient cool-down is used to validate the
thermal capacitance of satellite components.
The TVT profile is depicted in Fig. 4, and
Figure 5 FS-5 bus steady state correlation.
the correlation results of steady and transient
states are shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6. After
recognizing and tuning the relevant parameters,
most of the temperature differences between
model prediction and TVT data are less than 5
C. Hereafter, the final thermal model are
updated and re-calculated to make sure that all
the temperatures are still within their allowable
temperature ranges.
Figure 6 FS-5 bus transient state correlation.

4. CHALLENGE OF FS-5 THERMAL

CONTROL

4.1 Thermal improvement on FS-5 XTx

The FS-5 XTx reveals relatively high heat
flux with around 15% duty cycle per orbit. As
shown in Fig. 2, the sharp temperature change
indicates the thermal control could be more
effective and the phase-change technique is
Figure 3 FS-5 TVT configuration.
therefore proposed. In our simulation, the
PCM device with n-eicosane is applied on the

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Remote Sensing Satellite Technology Workshop 2016 Nov. 28, 2016
XTx as shown in Fig. 7. A comparison on XTx
temperature with and without PCM device at
55 W heat load is given in Fig. 8. The result
shows obvious difference in temperature
distribution in response to the presence of
PCM device. The maximum temperature is
dramatically reduced from 65.28 to 49.17 C,
and the minimum temperature is slightly
increased from 14.02 to 14.49 C. It can be
observed that in the beginning of 14 minutes
of XTx operation, the PCM device is still in
the solid phase, i.e., sensible heat phase. The
temperature rise of XTx slows down gradually
because of PCMs thermal inertia. From 14 to
20 minutes, the PCM starts melting and keeps
at 36.7 C. Meanwhile, the temperature rise of
XTx slows down obviously owing to the latent
heat that stored large amounts of waste heat.
After the XTx is turned off, the PCM device
starts to release stored energy and keeps at
36.7 C again until all the n-eicosane is frozen.
Figure 7 FS-5 XTx with PCM device.
Figure 8 FS-5 XTx temperature trend with and
without PCM device.
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4.2 Development of phase-change device
4.2.1 Heat spreader evaluation
A heat spreader is generally used when
the heat cannot be conducted away effectively.
It is typically designed as an intermediate layer
between heat source and heat sink. The heat is
moved from a limited area to a favorable
geometry. The spreader is often simply a plate
made of aluminum or copper, which has high
thermal conductivity. With the consideration of
higher heat flux unit and mass budget, some
non-conventional heat spreading techniques
are evaluating and developing in our team,
including diamond-copper composite material,
vapor chambers and embedded heat pipes (As
listed in Table 1).
Table 1 Heat spreader candidate.
4.2.2 PCM device simulation
In practice, the adopted materials for
PCM device usually have drawback of low
thermal conductivity that leads to large
thermal resistance. This section thus presents
both 2D and 3D simulations on configuration
design of PCM container. Various cases are
conducted as depicted in Fig. 9 and Fig. 10,
and the results show the effectiveness of
pin-fins inside PCM container that act as the
thermal conduction enhancer. Additionally, the
Remote Sensing Satellite Technology Workshop 2016 Nov. 28, 2016
PCM performance can be improved with the
increase of pin-fin volume ratio from 6 to 12%,
and with the decrease of pin-fin dimension
from 33 to 11 mm2.
Figure 9 PCM 2D simulation.
Figure 10 PCM 3D simulation.
4.2.3 PCM prototype validation
As shown in Fig. 11, the prototype is
designed as container dimension of 150 150
18 mm3 and pin-fin dimension of 22 mm2
with 484 pin-fins. N-octadecane is adopted as
the PCM and the filling ratio is controlled to
about 80% volume fraction to account for the
material expansion upon melting. The top
surface of prototype is sealed by O-ring and
M3 bolts. The performance test is conducted
with top surface heating, and the data is
recorded by T-type thermocouple and IR
thermal camera with the comparison of empty
container (i.e., w/o PCM) as shown in Fig. 12.
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So far, the benefit of PCM device on thermal
control is preliminary verified.
Figure 11 PCM prototype.
Figure 12 PCM prototype validation.
5. CONCLUSION
The first topic of this study describes the
FS-5 satellite thermal design and analysis,
which are completed with the development of
thermal geometrical and mathematical models
from preliminary to critical phases. In order to
minimize analysis uncertainties, the post-TVT
model correlation is conducted to achieve
effective model tuning. The second topic
introduces the thermal improvement on FS-5
XTx by using PCM device. Moreover, the
developing phase-change techniques in our
team are proposed, including the PCM,
composite material, vapor chambers and heat
pipes. They are hoped to be the advanced
thermal solutions for next space programs.
Remote Sensing Satellite Technology Workshop 2016 Nov. 28, 2016

6. REFERENCE

[1] M. H. Chen, J. D. Huang, and C. R. Chen,

Thermal Design and Analysis of
FORMOSAT-5 Satellite Bus, Proceed-
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Aerospace Technology and Science, May
23-26, 2013, Taiwan.
[2] M. H. Chen, J. D. Huang, and C. R. Chen,
FORMOSAT-5 Satellite Bus Thermal
Model Correlation, 2015 AASRC Con-
ference, Yunlin, December 5, 2015.
[3] C. E. Ho, J. D. Huang, and C. R. Chen,
FORMOSAT-5 Remote Sensing Instru-
ment Thermal Design, 2011 RSSTW,
HsinChu, November 24, 2011.
[4] C. E. Ho, J. D. Huang, and C. R. Chen,
Thermal Model Correlation of FOR-
MOSAT-5 Remote Sensing Instrument,
2015 RSSTW, HsinChu, November 20,
2015.
[5] T. Y. Kim, B. S. Hyun, J. J. Lee, and J.
Rhee, Numerical Study of the Spacecraft
Thermal Control Hardware Combining
Solid-Liquid Phase Change Material and
a Heat Pipe, Aerospace Science and
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[6] M. Gottero, V. Perotto, R. Martino, B.
Leyda, and B. Ozmat, Phase-Change
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Environmental Systems, Tucson, Arizona,
July, 2014.

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