Transient Thermal Analysis of Space Rectangular Thin-Walled Structures by Carrera Unified Formulation

The accurate prediction of transient thermal fields of space structures is of paramount significance for the analysis of geometrical stability and thermal management systems. This paper proposes a novel method to solve the transient thermal field of the thin-walled cross section of beams in outer space. High-order beam elements are derived by means of the Carrera unified formulation (CUF), where the longitudinal direction of the beam is discretized by one-dimensional two-node and four-node elements, whereas arbitrary high-order expansion functions are used for the description of the temperature expansion within the cross section. The governing differential equations of the transient temperature field are derived according to the transient thermal conduction theory and the weighted residual method. The solution of the initial value problem for ordinary differential equations is obtained through the application of the Adams-Bashforth method, leading to the determination of the transient thermal field. In order to demonstrate the accuracy of the temperature results, a convergence analysis is conducted. Finally, temperature distributions within the cross section and along the longitudinal direction of the model are discussed to show the effects of several factors, including material properties, angle of solar radiation, and shadows induced by the shelter of other components.