Overview
Solar arrays are large and light, so they flex. When the spacecraft turns, the panels vibrate, and the vibration pushes back on the spacecraft. Treating them as rigid hides that.
[06] Project
Flexible Spacecraft Solar Panel Dynamics
MATLABFEAModal analysisDynamics
A coupled structural and dynamics model of flexible solar panels on a spacecraft, used to study how they bend and vibrate and how that affects the spacecraft.
- Role
- Robotics Engineering Intern, RADL
- Year
- 2025
- Model
- Coupled FEA and dynamics
- Studies
- Deformation and vibration
How it works
The panels were modeled with finite elements to find how they bend and twist. Those shapes were reduced to a few modes and coupled to the spacecraft's motion, so each one affects the other.
Result
The coupled model gave better predictions of how the panels deform and respond than modeling them separately.