Numerical procedures for thermal problems of space antennae shells

One of the most difficult problems that arises from the study of thermal distributions on surfaces of space structures or capsules during re-entry missions is the influence of the radiative phenomenon, due to the high nonlinearity introduced in the thermal constitutive equation. Starting from a bidimensional thermal model for shells of space antennae reflectors, with nondimensional generalized curvilinear coordinates, a numerical procedure, based on polynomial power series expansions, is utilized and the obtained results in stationary conditions are analysed and discussed. A comparison with the results obtained by another procedure, which starts from the same bidimensional thermal model, but utilizes the finite difference method has been performed, in order to evaluate the efficiency of both methods. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.