Optimization of Thermal Control Design for Aerial Reflective Opto-Mechanical Structure

Abstract

To improve the adaptability of aerial reflective opto-mechanical structures (mainly including the primary mirror and secondary mirror) to low-temperature environments, typically below −40 °C, an optimized thermal control design, which includes passive insulation and temperature-negative feedback-variable power zone active heating, is proposed. Firstly, the relationship between conventional heating methods and the axial/radial temperature differences of mirrors with different shapes is analyzed. Based on the heat transfer analyses, it is pointed out that optimized thermal control design is necessary to ensure the temperature uniformity of the fused silica mirror, taking into account the temperature level when the aerial electro-optics system is working in low-temperature environments. By adjusting the input voltage based on the measured temperature, the heating power of the subregion is changed accordingly, so as to locally increase or decrease the temperature of the mirrors. The thermal control scheme ensures that the average temperature of the mirror fluctuates slowly and slightly around 20 °C. At the same time, the temperature differences within a mirror and between the primary mirror and the secondary mirror can be controlled within 5 °C. Thereby, the resolution of EO decreases by no more than 11.4%.