High Fidelity Modeling of Large, Thin, and Flexible Structures in Space

Space structures with extremely large aspect ratios are increasingly relevant for various space missions. When dynamic models are obtained for forecasting and control, the deformation dynamics of these structures cannot be decoupled from the translation and rotation dynamics. This work develops a Lagrangian framework to obtain fully coupled dynamics of a large flexible structure in space. Splitting the model into undeformed and deformed dynamics, coupled dynamics are viewed as perturbations from traditional rigid body theory. Due to the complex boundary conditions present in these structures, the deformation dynamics are modeled using a dynamic finite element analysis.