Abstract
The solar sail spacecraft for earth missions experience shadow region in Earth orbit, the resulting temperature field changes will induce the structural response on the sail films and the booms of the solar sail, thus disturb the attitude control of the spacecraft. Therefore, it is valuable to study the thermally induced structural response of solar sails caused by abrupt temperature filed. In this paper, the solar sail with square films and booms is studied. A sequential-coupled analysis method is proposed. Based on this method, the thermal analysis model of the solar sail is established, then the temperature variation law of the solar sail during orbiting the earth is obtained through simulation. Based on the structural analysis model of the solar sail, the structural response caused by temperature change is calculated, and the influence of material parameters on such response is analyzed. The results show that, the sudden change of temperature field will not only cause the shrinkage and expansion of the film, but also lead to obvious vibration on the boom. This vibration can be reduced by using thermal control coating or increasing the boom thickness. The results of this paper have important referential value for the design of thermal control system of solar sails.
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