Onwuka D.O. and Nwachukwu K.C.
This study is concerned with the understanding of the free flexural vibrations of a box-type satellite structure. Specifically, an equation of motion for the determination of the fundamental natural frequency of the box satellite was formulated using Bubnov-Galerkin’s Method as a tool. The box satellite structure is considered to be built up from six rectangular plates, each of which is assumed to be perfectly elastic, homogeneous, and isotropic and of uniform thickness. By using the properties of symmetric boundary conditions, only one-eighth of the box was idealized and analyzed using the Galerkin’s method. The formulated equation of motion for the fundamental natural frequency of the box was then tested with the data used by Lin and Pan (2009) in their box structure analyses. The outcome of the result shows a good agreement between the present study and the works of Lin and Pan using Displacement Finite Element Method software package.
