MINIMIZATION OF THERMOELASTIC DEFORMATION IN-SPACE STRUCTURES UNDERGOING PERIODIC MOTION

A numerical scheme is devised for the open-loop optimal control of the thermoelastic deformation of space structures. The motion that the sp ace structure undergoes and the control loads are assumed to be period ic in time, with a given period. Four different cost functionals are c onsidered, which involve the elastic deformation of the structure and include penalties on the control magnitudes. A finite element harmonic balance procedure is employed as the first step of the optimization s cheme. The performance of the scheme is demonstrated via numerical exa mples.