Thermal Performance Analysis of a Multilayer Honeycomb Heat Shield for Re-entry Capsules

Re-entry capsules experience severe aerodynamic heating during atmospheric descent, making an effective Thermal Protection System (TPS) essential for protecting the vehicle and its internal components.This study investigates a lightweight fivelayer TPS consisting of an outer ablative layer, adhesive layers, a hexagonal honeycomb core, inner insulation, and a metallic structural plate.Five different material combinations are evaluated to examine their influence on heat transfer and inner-wall temperature under representative re-entry conditions.A detailed threedimensional honeycomb geometry is developed and analyzed using steady-state thermal simulations in ANSYS.The outer surface is subjected to a representative temperature of approximately 2060 K, while cabin-side convection is applied at the inner surface.The simulated temperature distributions and depth-wise thermal gradients are compared with NASA reference data for validation.The results show that all five configurations significantly reduce the external temperature, producing inner-wall temperatures in the range of approximately 320-780 K.Among the tested configurations, Combination 5 provides the lowest innersurface temperature, demonstrating the benefit of combining a low-conductivity ablative material with a Nomex honeycomb core.The results highlight the importance of material selection and honeycomb-core design in achieving effective thermal protection while maintaining low structural mass.