Fairings and radiators do not mix?!

[Hotel26]

I have a mining rig with radiators inside a fairing itself somewhat enclosed in a structure.

Any advice about how to configure the fairing deployment (clamshell, # sides, ejection force), so that it doesn't rip the radiators to shreds, let alone destroy my cargo plane?

(Something like this: https://i.imgur.com/QWkLGLI.png)

Any/all advice appreciated...

 

[RealKerbal3x]

Try setting the ejection force on the fairing to maximum (1000 I think?). That should make the fairing leave your radiators alone.

Edited November 18, 2018 by RealKerbal3x

[swjr-swis]

High ejection force, no clamshell, and it tends to help to keep the seams of the fairing shell sides on whatever parts you want to protect - in this case, mainly the wings. You may want to turn the fairing base 90 degrees to make the seams be on the horizontal plane.

 

[Hotel26]

6 hours ago, swjr-swis said:

High ejection force, no clamshell,

With the payload involved, the clearances between the fairing and the payload, the airframe (and the ground on take-off) are all very slim.

I think the nature of the problem had been the clamshell pieces hitting the airframe and ricocheting into the payload (radiators).

So, no clamshell, force of just a 100 (more than I normally use) plus 4 pieces (nice seamline alignment) PLUS flying absolutely as slowly as I could, did the trick (sample size 1!).

If I have any further difficulties, I'll experiment with higher forces but had found that high forces plus clamshell combined to create shrapnel that could tear the airframe or payload apart.

Really happy with this result and will retrofit this to an additional machine that was having this problem also; thank you both!

Edited November 18, 2018 by Hotel26

[Guest]

Funny, I just spent hours upon hours with the exact same problem, except I was also protecting some very small wheels apparently made from fine bone china. Only, I have three fairings side by side.

I eventually ended up with something that results in no mishaps about 50% of the time, and minor mishaps like damage to or loss of a single wheel 45% of the time, with something really nasty happening only 5% of the time. It was a combination of fairing size, fairing spacing, and fairing configuration: I had clamshell OFF, six sections, ejection force of 50, with some struts to the payloads to keep things put when hit by bits of fairing. It comes off fine when rolling on the ground at 10 m/s or so. Mostly.