https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01600-4
Regular Article
Thermal and structural studies of black anodic coating on additively manufactured Al–10Si–Mg alloy for effective spacecraft thermal control applications
1
Thermal Systems Group, U. R. Rao Satellite Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, 560017, Bengaluru, India
2
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, 721302, Kharagpur, India
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA
a rghosh@ursc.gov.in, rahulghosh71@gmail.com
Received:
24
October
2024
Accepted:
19
March
2025
Published online:
11
April
2025
Black anodic coating (BAC) was fabricated on additively manufactured (AM) or 3D printed Al–10Si–Mg alloy for use in various spacecraft components, such as electronic housings, antenna feeds, wave guides, structural brackets, collimators, thermal radiators, etc. The surface morphology, near-surface elemental/electronic structure and chemical nature of the BAC were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), respectively. The thermal stability of the BAC was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique, indicating no visible transitions across the spectra. The variation of infrared emittance (ℰIR) of the BAC as a function of temperature was also investigated using calorimetric method. Further thermal design and analysis through finite-element (FE) simulation of the anodic-coated surface was carried out with the help of Spacecraft Thermal Analysis (STA) software. The thermal simulation studies indicate that the temperatures of the coated and uncoated spacecraft components are affected by deep space temperature, external environmental loads, and heat dissipation from internal elements. The achieved benign temperatures in the simulation studies of the spacecraft component/subsystem with anodic coating further substantiate the role of black anodic coating with higher infrared ℰIR for efficient thermal control of satellite components.
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Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
