Design and optimization of a thermal shield system for atmospheric reentry

The present work focuses on the analysis and optimization of a thermal shield with a Thermal Protection System (TPS), designed to withstand the extreme thermal environments that characterize aerospace applications, for atmospheric reentry.The thermal shield under investigation features high-performance ceramic material, insulating structures, and other structural elements that contribute to the overall integrity and functionality of the system, with the aim of exploring the possibility of optimizing the structural masses. More specifically, for the minimization of these structural masses through a thermo-structural finite element analysis (FEA) simulation, an optimization algorithm was implemented. This algorithm is a Genetic Algorithm (GA), a numerical procedure particularly useful and time saving for problems with many parameters. The optimization procedure was applied to several design scenarios, including variations in both geometrical parameters and material configuration. The results of the analysis showed that the thermal shield configurations achieve really good mass reductions while maintaining thermal and structural performance.