Analytical Thermal Modeling of Deployed and Body Mount Solar Panel and Its Comparison with Numerical Approaches for Small Satellite

This paper involves a detailed thermal mathematical modeling of 300 mm × 300 mm deployed and body mounted solar panel of 10 kg sun-pointing Low Earth Orbit small satellite. An analytical calculation of solar panel both deployed and body mounted is performed using energy conservation principle. The system-level satellite thermal model along with solar panels is generated and solved numerically. In this paper, two configuration of body mounted solar panel in detailed system-level thermal model is studied. Firstly, the solar panel is fully conduction coupled with body structure panel. Secondly, conduction coupling is restricted by using 3 mm thick GFRP insulator at fastening points and resulting heat transfer by radiation is also studied. Also, the worst hot case temperatures of solar panel both deployed and body mount predicted by analytical approach is compared with numerical approach of the detail system-level thermal model. Hence, the presented method is beneficial for predicting the temperature profile of solar panel under worst hot condition.