Optimal Geometry for Cable Wrapping to Minimize Dynamic Impacts on Cable-Harnessed Beam Structures

Abstract

Power and cable carrier systems have been shown to significantly impact the dynamic behavior of lightweight space structures. The goal of this paper is to obtain an optimal cable placement geometry for cable-harnessed beam structures to minimize the impact of the added cables on the system dynamics. The cable is harnessed to the beam in a periodic pattern, which forms several repeating fundamental elements within the structure. An analytical model for the cable-harnessed beam using an energy-equivalence homogenization method is employed for the purpose of optimization. The natural frequencies of the cable harnessed beam is then matched with the bare beam when no cables attached through an optimization algorithm in order to find the optimal cable placement solution for the given system parameters. Subsequently, the effects of the system parameters on the optimal solutions are investigated and discussed. Experimental modal analysis is then performed to further validate the optimal solutions found using the model. The test results further validate the findings from the model. The frequency response functions from the bare beam and the optimally wrapped beam align really well.