Abstract:All large spacecrafts have deployable structures like solar arrays, which are folded during launch and deployed in orbit. The clearances between the deployable joints greatly impact the system′s dynamics. A multi-body model consisting of a satellite, solar panels, clearance revolute joints and flexible panels is established with ADAMS software. The deployment progress of multiple clearances is numerically simulated, and the comparison between models with different numbers of clearance joints is analyzed by calculating the impact force and relative trail of the shaft mass centroid in the joint. The results show that increasing the clearance number brings in more complexity, and that the joint near the spacecraft base has a stronger influence.