Modeling and Experimental Validation of a Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitat Interior Environment

Laura Collazo Carballude, Purdue University

Abstract

The NASA-funded Resilient Extra-Terrestrial Habitat Institute (RETHi) aims at developing the necessary fundamental knowledge to enable the design of future resilient deep space habitats. To achieve this, RETHi has developed a Modular Coupled Virtual Testbed (MCVT) consisting of various subsystems (such as power, structural, ECLSS, etc.) to simulate a range of deep space hazardous scenarios and assess the ability of the systems to recover from expected and unexpected fault scenarios under both crewed and uncrewed situations. The physics-based Simulink models within MCVT allow for direct interconnections among components, including damage cascading effects, repairability features, and various failures. Besides the MCVT platform, a Cyber Physical Testbed (CPT) has also been conceptualized to perform real-time experiments with physical portions of the MCVT models (e.g., structural, thermal and pressure management systems). The overarching goal of CPT is to implement and validate decision-making algorithms under various scenarios (e.g., leaks, thermal bridges, etc.), introduce controllable and realistic uncertainties (e.g., communication delays, sensing faults, etc.), and assess resilience, control effectiveness and autonomy. The CPT design consists of three main physical systems: the inflatable bladder, the aluminum dome structure, and the thermal transfer panels connected to a low-temperature chiller. Pressure and temperature controls inside the bladder are achieved by means of a pressure regulator and a mini-split heat pump system, respectively. One of the core aspects of both MCVT and CPT is the habitat interior environment which includes the coupled temperature and pressure effects due to interior and exterior loads as well as the necessary conditions to ensure the crew survival. As part of this work, a dynamic Habitat Interior Environment Model (HIEM) has been developed to simulate the behavior of a two-zone habitat in real-time. The model can directly interact with other subsystems such as the ECLSS and structural protective layer (SPL) and features various disturbances including pressure leaks due to meteorite impacts or airlock failures. The HIEM has been further extended to also include various fire intensity scenarios and also to enable the isolation of the zones by means of a door in case of an emergency or simply due to the architecture of the future habitat. The CPT system is utilized to test the capability of HIEM in predicting the behavior of the interior environment in various scenarios. To impose the necessary thermal loads to the habitat structure (i.e., aluminum skeleton and inflatable bladder) in the laboratory environment, thermal transfer panels with coiled copper piping and aluminum heat spreaders have been designed to provide uniform temperature distributions. A cryogenic chiller with Syltherm as the working fluid is used to maintain and provide the necessary operating range between -40 °C and 60 °C. The HIEM was modified to describe the physical sizing of the bladder as well as to capture the heat transfer characteristics between the bladder, the aluminum structure, and thermal transfer panels. In addition, the models also included the effects of air infiltrations within the bladder, various sources of heat losses by conduction and convection, and thermal resistances associated with non-perfect contacts between bladder and transfer panels. Experimental data was used to validate the model predictions and different operating conditions as well as to improve the model accuracy by identifying key thermal resistances and capacitances.

Degree

M.Sc.

Advisors

Ziviani, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Ecology|Planetology

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