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To describe the characteristics of thermally induced coupled micro-motions more exactly, a numerical model is proposed for a satellite system consisting of a rigid body and the complex appendages. The coupled governing equations including the effects of transient temperature differences are formulated within the framework of the Lagrangian Method based on the finite element models of flexible structures. Meanwhile, the problem of coupling between attitude motions of rigid body and vibrations of flexible attachments are addressed with explicit expressions. Thermally induced micro-motions are examined in detail for a simple satellite with a large solar panel under the disturbance of thermal environment from earth shadow to sunlight area in the earth orbit. The results show that the thermal-mechanical performances of an on-orbit satellite can be well predicted by the proposed finite element model.

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