THERMAL ANALYSIS OF SPACE TRUSSES INCLUDING THREE‐DIMENSIONAL EFFECTS

A numerical procedure is devised for the thermal analysis of three‐dimensional large truss‐type space structures exposed to solar radiation. Truss members made of an orthotropic material with a closed thin‐walled cross‐section of arbitrary shape are considered. Three‐dimensional thermal effects are taken into account in the analysis. In the proposed method, the governing equations are first put into a weak form. Then the Galerkin finite element method is applied with respect to the axial coordinate of each truss member. The circumferential variation of the temperature is treated by a symbolically‐coded harmonic balance procedure. The interaction between the various truss members is controlled by an iterative scheme. As a numerical example which demonstrates the proposed method, the temperature distribution in a parabolic dish structure is found. The results are compared to those obtained by standard one‐ and two‐dimensional analyses.