Elastic Spiral Folding for Flat Membrane Apertures

Reynolds, Whitney; Murphey, Thomas W.; Afb, Kirtland

doi:10.2514/6.2014-1036

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Another challenge is that two elastic folds in different directions will still cause plastic deformation at the point of intersection. This can be avoided by removing enough material around this point, leaving a hole that accomodates the presence of the two folds [6].…”

Section: Membrane Folding and Creasingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Packaging and deployment strategies for synthetic aperture radar membrane antenna arrays

Lee

Pellegrino

2014

2014 XXXIth URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (URSI GASS)

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The performance of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is limited by the size and therefore the areal density of the antenna array. Conventional arrays consist of radiating elements mounted on hinged panels that are relatively heavy. In order to produce larger arrays capable of operating at higher altitudes, or to support comparable SAR payloads on smaller spacecraft, a lighter structure such as one using membranes must be used. Membrane antenna arrays have been developed, but deployment remains a challenge. This paper describes possible techniques to package and deploy membrane structures that can support these antenna arrays.

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Section: Membrane Folding and Creasingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Packaging and deployment strategies for synthetic aperture radar membrane antenna arrays

Lee

Pellegrino

2014

2014 XXXIth URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (URSI GASS)

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“…As discussed previously, this modeling assumption allows membrane dynamics be treated as external perturbations. In order to prevent control performance deterioration due to perturbations, sufficient robustness is desired for closed-loop controllers designed based on Equation (12). In other words, robust control methods (e.g., the LPV control method discussed in this work) are expected to be used to conduct control design for the 2-3(F) system.…”

Section: Tensegrity Configurationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10 Experiments were conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of stowing thin membranes using the spiral folding technique. 11,12 Tensegrity-membrane systems proposed in the work of Yang and Sultan 13 were designed as candidates for deployable structures in space and civil applications. It was shown that linear/nonlinear feedback controllers could be designed to deploy tensegrity-membrane systems from compact folded shapes based on the tendon control technique, 14,15 while the attached membranes were controlled to be tensioned during system deployment.…”

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confidence: 99%

Deployment of a foldable tensegrity‐membrane system via configuration transitions using linear parameter‐varying control

Yang

2021

Struct Control Health Monit

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Controlled deployment of a foldable tensegrity-membrane system is investigated in this article. A membrane folding technique referred to as the spiral folding pattern is applied to the attached membrane to achieve compact folded shapes for the system. The foldable tensegrity-membrane system experiences transitions between two system configurations (i.e., the tensegrity configuration and the tensegrity-membrane configuration) due to the variation of membrane loading states during system deployment. A closed-loop control strategy consisting of two linear parameter-varying (LPV) controllers is designed based on control-oriented models to regulate system dynamics. A nonlinear finite element model is used to examine the control performance. Senor noise is considered in another nonlinear finite element simulation to examine the robustness of the designed controllers. K E Y W O R D Scontrol-oriented model, equilibrium conditions, foldable tensegrity-membrane systems, LPV control, nonlinear finite element model | INTRODUCTIONFolding and deployment techniques enable structures and architectures of large dimensions to be stowed during transportation and to be deployed at operational states. Such deployable structure concepts meet design requirements of large deployable spacecraft, leading to several successful applications such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) 1 and NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft. 2 Folding mechanisms were employed to stow the primary and secondary mirrors, membrane sunshields, and the overall telescope to ensure that the folded JWST fits the fairing of a launch vehicle. 3 As a key system component of NASA SMAP spacecraft, a 6-m AstroMesh-Lite reflector, consisting of a truss support structure and a membrane surface, could be stowed to reduce its envelope during launch and be deployed in orbit by controlling the shape of the truss support structure. 4 Folding techniques also enable large spacecraft components such as membranes, solar arrays, and thermal protection panels to be folded to achieve compact packaged shapes. Recently, an ultralight deployable space structure composed of independent bending-stiff trapezoid strips and membranes was designed based on a two-stage packaging/folding concept. 5,6 An origami-based folding concept was recently developed to ensure that an aeroshell of a Mars entry vehicle could be stowed efficiently during the launch phase and be deployed during the entry phase to perform vehicle thermal protection. 7 An origami folding pattern was employed in the design of large spacecraft arrays to achieve self-deployment, self-stiffening, and retraction. 8 Membrane folding patterns such as rotationally skew folding, spiral folding, circumferential folding, and curved circumferential

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“…12 Instead of removing material, it has been proposed to widen and reduce the thickness of the crease regions. 12,13 However, this results in the presence of large voids in the packaged membrane. Crease widths of 10 to 14 times the panel thickness were required in previous studies to enable packaging.…”

Section: Iib 2d Compactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wrapping Thick Membranes with Slipping Folds

Arya

Lee

Pellegrino

2015

2nd AIAA Spacecraft Structures Conference

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A novel method of packaging finite-thickness membranes tightly and with high packaging efficiency is presented. This method allows the membrane to be packaged without extension and without plastic creasing. As such, initially flat membranes can be deployed to a flat state. Membrane thickness is accommodated by removing material along fold lines and exploiting the slipping deformation mechanism thus created. Also presented are methods for prestressing and deploying membranes packaged according to this technique. Initial tests demonstrate packaging efficiencies of 73% without plastic deformation. Experimental deployment tests of a meter-scale model showed controlled deployment with unfolding forces of less than 0.6 N.

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Elastic Spiral Folding for Flat Membrane Apertures

Cited by 6 publications

References 12 publications

Packaging and deployment strategies for synthetic aperture radar membrane antenna arrays

Packaging and deployment strategies for synthetic aperture radar membrane antenna arrays

Deployment of a foldable tensegrity‐membrane system via configuration transitions using linear parameter‐varying control

Wrapping Thick Membranes with Slipping Folds

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