Advanced Isolation Systems for Launch Vehicle Avionics

Avionics are hardmounted in today's launch vehicles (LVs) to conduct internally generated heat away from the electronics, but this causes a high vibration environment for the avionics. One LV manufacturer attributed a mission failure in 1996 to avionics damage introduced by excessive vibration. Current technology isolators block heat conduction due to material and physical design constraints. New approaches to designing conductive isolators are proposed. Conductive loading of viscoelastic polymers, thermal shunt designs, and shape memory alloys are all proposed as innovative concepts to improve conductivity in isolation designs. Loading of a viscoelastic is a procedure where either a metal or another compound is suspended in the material. Loaded materials are commonly sold in the electronics industry for increased thermal and electric conductivity. However, no manufacturer has developed elastomeric isolation components with these compounds. Thermal conductive shunts are also proposed. They could increase conductivity with little change to the mechanical properties of isolators. Shape memory alloy concepts are also proposed. These elements offer unique nonlinear performance and temperature insensitivity. Phase I efforts would examine the performance offered by each, and test two of the best designs at the brassboard level. Phase II would demonstrate isolation and conduction performance for a simulated avionics payload.