Effects of thermal loading on the deployment of four-bar linkages for retractable roof structures

Abstract

The thermal stress due to temperature rise may increase the element strain and internal forces, which may lead to the failure of the deployment of deployable structure. However, few works are carried out to study the dynamic performance of the flexible multibody under different temperatures, especially for retractable roof structures. Based on this idea and formulation of finite element methods, the dynamic equations of the system considering the temperature effect are derived. Then two examples, a parallel four-bar linkage and a non-parallel four-bar linkage, are presented in this paper to study the influence of thermal loading on the structural behavior during the motion. The results show that the effect of temperature changes is slight for the parallel four-bar linkage, but the influence is significant for the non parallel four-bar linkage. It can be concluded that the former case may be more suitable for the deployable structures.