Dynamic characteristics of flexible spacecraft with double solar panels subjected to solar radiation

Abstract The dynamic characteristics of a flexible spacecraft with double solar panels are studied comprehensively in this paper. The spacecraft is subjected to time-varying thermal loading and its solar panels are composed of honeycomb panel. The rigid-flexible-thermal coupling dynamic model of the spacecraft is firstly derived by taking into account the coupling effect among attitude motion, structural deformation and thermal loading. Subsequently, an explicit finite difference algorithm is proposed to solve solar panels’ heat conduction problem including the nonlinear boundary conditions relevant to heat radiation. Finally, the coupled thermal-structural analyses are carried out by interactively solving the system's dynamic equations and the heat conduction equations with a two-way coupled approach designed in this paper. The dynamic behaviors of thermally induced responses are studied comprehensively for the cases of attitude maneuver and sunrise eclipse transition. Meanwhile, the effects of solar panels’ parameters on the characteristics of spacecraft frequencies and responses are investigated in detail.