Heat shield in the fairing of a launcher

The payload fairing is the protection of the payload, typically represented by a satellite. The fairing is designed in order to protect it from the atmospheric agents, the aerodynamic forces and micrometeorites. The jettison of the fairing takes place at an altitude of about 110-120 km, where it is split in two halves, dropped in the radial direction, through a pyrotechnic mechanism. The aim of the present work consists in the thermal analysis of a fairing made up by panels of fiber-reinforced polymer and by an aluminumhoneycomb core. The outermost layer of the fairing is coated with a thermal-resistant blanket of cork to preserve the payload from overheating. The numerical simulation is carried out to evaluate the temperature distribution inside the fairing by setting a known profile of heat flow on the external surface as a boundary condition. A hand-made code allows to evaluate the thickness of the ablated cork.