Thermal modeling environment for TMT

In a previous study we had presented a summary of the TMT Aero-Thermal modeling effort to support thermal seeing and dynamic loading estimates. In this paper a summary of the current status of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations for TMT is presented, with the focus shifted in particular towards the synergy between CFD and the TMT Finite Element Analysis (FEA) structural and optical models, so that the thermal and consequent optical deformations of the telescope can be calculated. To minimize thermal deformations and mirror seeing the TMT enclosure will be air conditioned during day-time to the expected night-time ambient temperature. Transient simulations with closed shutter were performed to investigate the optimum cooling configuration and power requirements for the standard telescope parking position. A complete model of the observatory on Mauna Kea was used to calculate night-time air temperature inside the enclosure (along with velocity and pressure) for a matrix of given telescope orientations and enclosure configurations. Generated records of temperature variations inside the air volume of the optical paths are also fed into the TMT thermal seeing model. The temperature and heat transfer coefficient outputs from both models are used as input surface boundary conditions in the telescope structure and optics FEA models. The results are parameterized so that sequential records several days long can be generated and used by the FEA model to estimate the observing spatial and temporal temperature range of the structure and optics.