Rigid–flexible–thermal coupling dynamics of a hub and multiplate system considering frictional contact

Abstract

A geometric nonlinear modeling approach for strong rigid-flexible-thermal coupling dynamics of the hub and multi-plate system considering frictional contact is proposed. Based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF), a thermal integrated ANCF thin plate element is developed, where the temperature field is expressed with Taylor polynomials to yield two-dimensional heat conduction equations. Different from the traditional coupling formulations, the influences of the attitude motion and structural deformation on the intensity of the solar radiation, the geometric nonlinearity of the plate as well as the frictional contact are taken into account. The normal contact is formulated by the penalty method, and the tangential friction considers the stick-slip transition. To solve the strong rigid-flexible-thermal coupling equations, a novel numerical method combining the modified central difference approach and the generalized- method is proposed. Two validations are performed to verify the proposed thermal-structural coupling model, which proves the importance of the geometric nonlinearity and can capture the thermally induced vibration. Then the thermal-dynamic coupling analysis for the satellite and solar array multibody system in thermal environment is carried out. The dynamic characteristics of the thermally induced vibration can be successfully revealed by the rigid-flexible-thermal coupling model. Furthermore, it is indicated that the influence of contact and thermal load on the nonlinear behavior of the solar array deployment is essential, which demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed approach.