Thermal flutter analysis of large-scale space structures based on finite element method

During the orbital day–night crossing period, the suddenly applied thermal loading is apt to introducing vibration on flexible appendages of large-scale space structures. This kind of thermally-induced vibration is a typical failure of modern spacecrafts. However, owing to the complexity of this problem, many earlier researches study only the vibration of simplified beam models, which can hardly describe the performance of practical structures. This paper aims at using the finite element method to analyse the non-linear vibration of practical thin-walled large-scale space structures subjected to suddenly applied thermal loading. In this study, the coupling effect between structural deformations and the incident normal solar heat flux is considered; the necessary condition of thermally-induced vibration is verified; and the criterion of thermal flutter is established. Copyright q 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd