Heat system - How does it work?

[*Aqua*]

I looked into Part and found these variables. I'm a layman in thermodynamics so I've no idea what most of them represent. Also there's the language barrier which doesn't make things easier.

What variables do I have to care about when heat balancing a part? What do all of them mean and how do they influence each other?

I understood that a part has an external (skin) and an internal temperature. They pass heat to each other. Also skin's heat energy is transfered to the skins of attached parts and internal heat energy is transfered to the "internal" of attached parts.

So here's the variables list:

emissiveConstant

heatConvectiveConstant

maxTemp - maximum temperature the part can have before it explodes due to overheating

radiativeArea - part surface area in m²? for calculating how much heat energy can be radiated during a fixed update

radiatorHeadroom

radiatorMax

resourceThermalMass

skinExposedArea

skinExposedAreaFrac

skinExposedMassMult

skinInternalConductionMult

skinMassPerArea - what it says

skinMaxTemp - maximum temperature of the part's skin

skinSkinConductionMult

skinTemperature - current temperature of the part's skin

skinThermalMass

skinThermalMassModifier

skinThermalMassRecip

skinToInternalFlux - heat energy in J? passed from skin to internal during a fixed update

skinUnexposedExternalTemp

skinUnexposedMassMult

temperature - current temperature of a part; is this the same as the current skin temperature?

thermalConductionFlux

thermalConvectionFlux

thermalInternalFlux

thermalInternalFluxPrevious

thermalMass

thermalMassModifier

thermalMassReciprocal

thermalRadiationFlux - heat energy in J? radiated away during a fixed update, works in space & atmosphere

As you can see I have no idea what's going on there. My last physics classes were ~15 years ago and I forgot everything about temperatures.

I would be nice if someone adds the missing descriptions.

[blowfish]

Many of those are internal fields that setting in the config will have no effect. I can tell you for sure that these fields matter:

emissiveConstant

heatConvectiveConstant

maxTemp

skinInternalConductionMult

skinMaxTemp

skinInternalConductionMult

skinThermalMassModifier

thermalMassModifier

As far as I can tell the rest are set internally so from a config balancing perspective they don't matter.

EDIT: I'm not sure about the radiator stuff.

[blowfish]

Also, it's worth noting that you don't have to set all of the parameters by hand. Squad's configs are a good reference for what actually needs to be modified.

[*Aqua*]

Thanks for your answers.

Stock parts only use skinInternalConductionMult, emissiveConstant and maxTemp (radiator parts use some more). It's obvious what maxTemp is but what about the other two?

[NathanKell]

These may help:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/126318-Part-heating-rate

and

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/118839-Updating-Parts-to-1-0

[*Aqua*]

The first link is what I was looking for. Now I'm overloaded with information.

Thank you! I think I now know what to do now.

Edited July 30, 2015 by *Aqua*