Thermal distortion analysis of orbiting solar array including degradation effects of composite materials

In this study, transient analyzes were conducted to predict the thermal dis tortion of the Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT) solar array during i ts orbital motion. The solar array consists of five honeycomb sandwich pane ls with aluminum facesheets. To enable future improvements, the solar array s were also analyzed with composite facesheets for the temperature distribu tion and thermal distortion. in order to evaluate the degradation effects o f the material properties of the composite facesheets in low earth orbit en vironment, the composite materials were: exposed to simulate low earth orbi t environmental conditions including ultraviolet (UV) radiation, high vacuu m and thermal cycling. The values of the degraded properties were used in t he thermal distortion analysis. The results show that the solar arrays with composite facesheets are beneficial with regard to weight savings, tempera ture distribution and thermal distortion during the mission when compared t o those with aluminum facesheets, even though the composite materials are d egraded due to low earth orbit environmental factors. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.