Advanced Thermal Modeling of Space Flight Electronics Equipment

Producing thermal models of Space Flight Electronic Equipments using Finite Difference Analysis Tools is currently a standard approach in the Industry. This procedure can, nevertheless, turn out to be very tedious and time consuming specially when temperature predictions are to be taken all the way to the electronic component level.

Combining State of the Art Finite Difference and Finite Element Analysis Tools, in an integrated procedure, can expedite modelling considerably and allow worst case accurate temperature predictions at the component level for all components in the equipment.

This paper shows how this last procedure has been applied to the ESA Polar Platform GOMOS MDE Equipment and presents the results obtained.