Abstract: Alternation between high and low temperatures is one of the key factors that severely affect the performance of the particle reinforced composites applied on the spacecrafts serving in rigorous space environment. Thermal loads result in surface and subsurface temperature rise changes of the materials, further lead to the surface thermal deformation and the interior thermal stress, and severely influence the mechanical performance of the materials. In the particle reinforced composites, the reinforcement has the heat conduction properties which are inconsistant with the base material, and whose distribution is irregular. Thus, steady state heat conduction in composites and its temperature rise distribution become quite complicated. Based on the equivalent inclusion method, a numerical analysis method for solving the temperature rise distribution of the composites under thermal loads was proposed, and its efficiency was promoted by appling a conjugate gradient method (CGM) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) method. The results demonstrate that the shape, the size, the location and the heat conduction property of the particle reinforcements have a significant influence on the temperature rise distribution inside of the particle reinforced composites.

Key words: thermal loads; particle reinforced composite; steady state heat conduction; numerical simulation; temperature rise distribution