Thermal Performance Study for Hybrid SOFI and MLI System Used in Space.

Spray-on foam insulation (SOFI) and Multilayer insulation (MLI) are extensively employed in spacecrafts as lightweight and high performance thermal protection systems. Due to variable changes in parameters such as materials density, screen emissivity, perforation coefficient and interstitial pressure, accurate theoretical calculation of insulation performance is very difficult. Thus, the experimental investigations become very important in the studies. In this paper, an experimental system is designed and calculation is performed with liquid oxygen as the working medium. The investigations are focused on the influence of the thickness of SOFI and MLI, with the cold and hot boundary at the different temperatures. The results are discussed, and the conclusion can be used to improve and design the high performance thermal insulation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]