The Robust Optimization for Large-Scale Space Structures Subjected to Thermal Loadings

Large-scale space structures may experience unexpected thermal-elastic deformation due to thermal loadings in space. This thermal response could be minimized by using optimization method in design phase and the uncertainty of material properties should also be considered to ensure the reliable performance of the produced structure. For this purpose, the robust optimization is applied to this kind of structures in this paper. Firstly, a perturbation based stochastic finite element program is developed, which is tailored for the problem of thermal-elastic deformation of thin-walled structures subjected to incident thermal flux and energy emission through radiation. Based on this program, a robust design scheme is formulated as a two-objective optimization problem, in which all required sensitivities are calculated analytically. Then, the Pareto front of this problem is effectively determined by using the adaptive weighted sum method. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the validity and capability of this proposed method.