A novel thermo-flexible coupled dynamics analysis method of planar deployable structures in the deploying process

Abstract1 The temperature-induced vibration of deployable structures caused by the temperature gradient due to heat flux from the solar radiation is a major factor that results in a significant effect on synchronism of the deploying motion. In this paper, a coupled thermo-flexible dynamics analysis method of deployable structures is presented. In this method, the temperature field of thin-walled rectangular tube element subjected to the solar radiation is established by the linear interpolation functions and the proposed high-order polynomials. The two methods, respectively, are used to approximate the axial and circumferential temperature distributions. Then, the dynamics equations of the tube element are derived by the extended absolute node coordinate formulation with the temperature field inset and verified by comparing with ANSYS. Next, the coupled thermo-flexible dynamics equations of the deploying mechanisms are assembled by the virtue of rods and constraint conditions. Finally, the deployable structure with three scissor-like units is analyzed as a numerical example. The simulation results show that the thermal loading has a significant impact on the displacement, straightness, and driving force due to thermally induced bends and vibrations and the incidence angle of the solar radiation is a key parameter to determine the different aspects of the temperature influence.