[SOLVED] Need ablation help or advice

[JadeOfMaar]

I know of the ablation technique whereby the ablative material is a propellant and is pumped around and within or over the external surface of the craft body instead of being built into the frontal surface like on discreet heatshields and shuttles.

I'm trying to reproduce this technique in KSP so I (and anyone interested) has a fashionable and effective alternative to weighing down the command part (and if it's a cockpit: blinding the pilots) with a resource that (in addition to being very heavy) is inaccessible except by the part that holds the resource (like SolidFuel).

My problem is, I don't know what to do to get the flux rating to be a non-zero value in the part info window. It drains in flight when heat builds up, but I'm not confident that friction heat is being controlled. In some of my test launches, critical temperature has gotten as high as it would if I never bothered trying this experiment. I made the cockpit hold some resource, thinking that would fix it but it did not. The ablator module is copied exact from the stock heatshields but the resource name is the only thing I changed. Once this works I'll use a more appropriate resource. Gypsum is only a placeholder.

Or am I forgetting how ablator works in KSP?

MODULE
{
	name = ModuleAblator
	ablativeResource = Gypsum
	lossExp = -7500
	lossConst = 0.1
	pyrolysisLossFactor = 6000
	reentryConductivity = 0.01
	ablationTempThresh = 500
}

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by JadeOfMaar

[ARS]

So... Wait, are you trying to make an active ablation or integrated ablation system? If that's the case then I have an example of that. As far as I know, ablator will be drained from heatshield no matter what kind of the source of the heat (Sometimes it's even drained by the fission reactor or drills being overheated, though I don't know if that's a bug) Anyway, If you're looking for:

1. Integrated ablation (So it's already integrated in command pod outer skin), I have an example, there's an old mod in KSP named HGR (homegrown rocket parts) In that mod, there's one command pod (Forget the name, it's small one-kerbal pod shaped like spherical vostok capsule) that has built-in ablator in it's body (Because let's be honest, how you mount a heatshield on spherical capsule like vostok?) Maybe you can see it's .cfg file for some help.

2. Active ablation (So you spend some resource to activate the ablation, and it'll protect the craft as long as it's still active), One of the example is from Solaris Hypernautic mod. There's a gigantic, large-scale heatshield (About twice or thrice the stock inflatable heatshield) that can be folded. It cannot survive the reentry, but by spending electric charge resource, it can build a magnetic charge resource, which will allow it to repel heat from reentry, and it'll keep protect the craft as long as there's power and magnetic charge

Hope that helps

[genericeventhandler]

@PART[mk1pod]:FINAL
{
  	@name = mk1Pod_test
    @descripton = Mk1 pod with ablator
    @title = experimental Mk1 pod with liquid ablator resource using excess monopropellant.
	MODULE
	{
		name = ModuleAblator
		ablativeResource = Ablator
		lossExp = -6000
		lossConst = 1
		pyrolysisLossFactor = 600
		reentryConductivity = 0.01
		ablationTempThresh = 500
		charMax = 1
		charMin = 1
	}
	
	RESOURCE
	{
		name = Ablator
		amount = 0
		maxAmount = 5
	}
	
	MODULE
		{
			name = ModuleGenerator
			isAlwaysActive = False
			requiresAllInputs = True
            
		 
			INPUT_RESOURCE
			{
				name = ElectricCharge
       	        rate = 0.01
			}
      
      		INPUT_RESOURCE
            {
             	name = MonoPropellant
                rate = 1
            }

			OUTPUT_RESOURCE
			{
				name = Ablator
				rate = 0.5
                DumpExcess = False
			}
	}
}

Hello,

Looking at this from a different direction. 

By using a generator, I've converted the mono propellant into Ablator on the mk1 pod, note on the charMax / charMin values set to 1. this is to stop the entire pod turning black. 

GEH

WARNING:  I made a mistake in the example code,   change the first line from   @PART  to +PART

 

 

Edited July 6, 2017 by genericeventhandler
Messed up.

[JadeOfMaar]

@ARS @genericeventhandler Thanks guys. I really like what I see. I also found the root of my problem. Gypsum doesn't have an hsp (specific heat) value, but Water does. So I see flux ratings now and ablation works without the pod or cockpit needing to carry Water (or Ablator) itself.  

I might play around with Char settings too. I would like some parts to show that they took the heat.

Edited July 6, 2017 by JadeOfMaar