Uniform-tension form-finding design for asymmetric cable-mesh deployable reflector antennas

Abstract

Space antennas with high gain and high directivity are in great demand for future communication and observation applications. Deployable cable-mesh reflector antennas are required to be tensioned in a self-equilibrated state through form-finding design. In order to ensure the cable-mesh reflector antennas' high performances, both surface accuracy requirements and tension uniformity should be considered in the form-finding design process. To effectively implement the form-finding design for asymmetric cable-mesh antennas, a two-step uniform-tension form-finding approach is presented. In step 1, with the cable tension and membrane stress being considered simultaneously, an iterative design technique which combines force density method and surface stress density method is presented. In step 2, considering the asymmetry between the rear and front nets, the nodal z-coordinates and cable tensions of the rear net are designed with the combination of the equilibrium matrix method and force density method. Finally, an offset AstroMesh antenna is designed using the proposed method. For the obtained antenna, the cable tension and membrane stress of the front net are completely uniform, and the maximum tension ratio of the rear cable net is 1.06, which are very satisfactory. KeywordsUniform-tension form-finding, asymmetric cable-mesh antennas, force density method, surface stress density method Date

Surface Shape Stability Design of Mesh Reflector Antennas Considering Space Thermal Effects

“…The pretension distribution of the front net cables is the same as that in [10]. In order to allow the driving force of the truss to deploy the structure and avoid the cables being slack under temperature loads, the tension values of the front net cables are reduced to 1/4 of those in [10], and the corresponding tensions of the rear net and vertical cables can be determined through the method in [22]. The pretension distribution of the whole cable net structure is listed in Table 1.…”

“…As shown in Fig. 1, the AstroMesh reflector is a cablemembrane-beam composite structure, of which the cable net and mesh can be taken as 2-node link elements and 3-node triangular membrane elements, respectively [22]. In general, the thermal expansion coefficient of the truss is obviously smaller than those of the cable and mesh.…”

Shape Design of Cable-net for Parabolic Cylindrical Deployable Antenna

“…Due to the limitations of rocket carrying space and capacity, the vertical bars of the antenna back frame should not be too high [7]. In order to ensure that the unfolding height of parabolic cylindrical antenna meets the requirements, the rear cable-net of parabolic cylindrical antenna is modularized by the modular idea as shown in Fig.…”

Networking Method for the Structure of a Large Modular Deployable Space Antenna

“…Tanaka and Natori [18] proposed two mesh surface shape control methods, namely, the direct method and mode method, and applied them to control the tension and boundary cables. Yang et al [19] proposed an initial shape design method for the cable net structure based on force density, which realized the initial shape design of the front and rear cable nets by optimizing and improving the uniformity of cable net tension. Wang et al [20] established the active shape adjustment optimization model of the cable net structure by integrating the piezoelectric ceramic actuator and flexible cable.…”