Thermal Analysis Of Inflatable Truss Solar Array

Inflatable truss solar array is a kind of novel solar array, which is constituted by the inflatable tube. The changing of the solar array temperature will induce thermal deformation and even thermally induced vibration, while it enter into and leave the earth shadow periodically in space environment. The transient temperature field and thermal deformation of inflatable truss solar array are studied in this paper.Firstly, the deformation of inflatable tube which is the main support component of the inflatable truss solar array is studied. It is established temperature distribution and deformation measurement system of inflatable tube in space environment, the deformation in different temperature gradient is studied. The finite element model is established , it is aslo studied the deformation in different temperature gradient. Experiment results and finite element analysis of inflatable tube thermal deformation have the same discipline. The results show that finite element analysis and experiment results are consistent, it is verified that the finite element method which is used in this paper is correct.Secondly, it is analyzed of the transient temperature field and thermal deformation of inflatable truss solar array in space environment, using the same finite element method. The results show that the temperature of the solar array is increasing with time, after a period of time the temperature distribution is stabilize when in sunshine area, the thermal deformation is also increasing with time. In the earth shadow, both the whole temperature of the solar array and the thermal deformation are decreasing with time.It is analyzed the material parameters and structure size of the tube affact on the overall temperature distribution. The results show that the thermal conductivity of the tube increases, the temperature gradient decreases;the emissivity of the tube increases, the extreme temperature decreases. The thickness of the inflatable tube increases, the temperature gradient decreases; the diameter of the inflatable tube increases, the temperature gradient increases.It is analyzed the material parameters and structure size of the tube affact on the overall thermal deformation and thermal stress. The results show that thermal expansion coefficient of the tube increases, the thermal deformation and thermal stress increases; The thickness and the diameter of the inflatable tube increases, the thermal deformation and thermal stress decreases. The thermal deformation of plane inflatable solar array much larger than the truss inflatable solar array, both have the same length inflatable tube.