Thermal-mechanical Coupling Analysis Of Inflated Cabin In Space Environment

Inflatable cabins which is made of flexible composite materials have the features like high efficiency of fold, small volume of launching, light in wei ght and convenient to construct large-scale space cabin. The inflatable cabin running on the track between sunshine and darkness in a cycle, the temperature changes as well. The cabin expansion and shrinkage and the tension of thermal stress is due to the change of temperature which also result in the deformation related to thermal-mechanical couple. These will influence the deformation features and vibration features on track which may shorten the safety and lifespan of the inflatable cabin. Hence the analysis of thermal-mechanical couple has a great significant in engineering area.The inflatable cabins in this project in made of double cabin wall, the space between the outside wall and inside wall is supported by inflated truss structure. The project tested the stretch ability and viscoelastic ability of the inflatable cabin with experiments, summarized the discipline of viscoelastic change following thermal variation and concluded the thermal parameter of the cabin material by calculation. With the help of FEA software, the thermal distribution of hollow sandwich under the radiation from sun has been calculated, and then researched on the influence of sandwich size to heat insulation, and the influence of radiation time to the temperature. In view of the cabin heat insulation requirements, I researched on adding foam into the hollow sandwich and analysed the influence of the thickness of foam. Considering the material properties changes with the thermal change, thermal-mechanical couple of cabin was analysed and the influence of different structure as well as aeration pressure of sandwich is also analysed. I analysed the deformation of cabin under the tension of heat radiation, inside pressure and external applied load.