Rigid–Flexible–Thermal Coupling Dynamics for Spacecraft with a Composite-Laminated Solar Array in a Space Thermal Environment

This paper proposes a rigid–flexible–thermal coupling dynamics model for a spacecraft with a composite-laminated solar array in a space thermal environment, and the thermally induced vibration on the spacecraft is studied. The spacecraft system consists of a rigid main body and a flexible composite-laminated solar array formulated with the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. The transient heat conduction equations that involve various heat fluxes are derived as the finite-element formula and the coupled thermo-structural model of the solar array is developed. First, several simulations are conducted to validate the proposed composite-laminated shell element considering the thermal effect. Then, the thermally induced vibration of the low Earth orbit (LEO) spacecraft is discussed when it travels through the umbra, penumbra, and sunlight regions. Moreover, three types of spacecraft dynamics models are compared to show the coupling effect. To further investigate the thermal effects of the attitude-maneuvering spacecraft, the dynamics characteristics of the two spacecraft at different orbit altitudes are simulated and analyzed. The numerical results reveal that the proposed rigid–flexible–thermal coupling model can correctly describe the thermal effect of LEO spacecraft in the complicated space thermal environment. The thermally induced vibration caused by the spatial heat flux has nonignorable effects on the spacecraft attitude motion.