TPS SELECTION AND SIZING TOOL IMPLEMENTED IN AN ADVANCED ENGINEERING ENVIRONMENT

A tool, TPSSIZER, was developed to provide a Thermal Protection System (TPS) analysis and design capability . The tool focuse d on analysis of space vehicles at the conceptual design level and was implemented in a collaborative engineering analysis environment. TPS sizing methodologies and data exchange interfaces with supporting disciplines were developed. Additionally, improv ements were made to prior art by introducing automatic generation of TPS stackups, automatic generation of aerothermal environment files, maintenance of consistent material properties descriptions, and the capability to simultaneously ev aluate multiple nom inal and abort flight trajectories .