Simulation Analysis Of Inflatable Membrane Structure And Research Of Inflatable Self-rigidizable Boom

Space inflatable structures, which have some prominent advantages in space exploration, such as small launched volume and mass, high dependability of deployment, can be used to build large space antenna, solar sail, and other large space structures. The domestic and abroad state of inflatable structures and the newest theory of simulation of inflatable structures are introduced firstly in this paper.Inflatable self-rigidizable boom is an important part of the inflatable structures.Spring tape is used to rigidize the boom. According to previous studies, this paper improves the production of self-rigidizable boom. We designed the components of STR boom one by one, such as end head, shape-keeping cirques. We confirmed the geometric dimensions of each component and designed the connections between the components. We also produced two booms which are 3.7 meters long and also a boom which is 1.2 meters long.Then we conducted experiments using boom which is 1.2 meters long.These experiments include the experiment of making the boom self-rigidizable by inflating, the experiment of the boom's capacity as a column and the experiment of the boom's capacity as a cantilever.The ground tests of inflatable structures can hardly reflect real work environment in space because of the effect of gravity and atmospheric pressure. And tiny gravity and vacuum can hardly be satisfied at the same time. Moreover, the cost of space testing is prohibitive expensive. Therefore, experiments have to depend on the computer simulation to predict inflatable process.There are some parts such as straight tube, torus tube, and parabolic reflector in a large space antenna. This paper builds the models of these parts and simulates the process of the deployment of each part by using the software LS-DYNA. Then analyze the deployment properties by comparing different speed of inflatation and the different ways to start folding. And the parabolic-shaped surface accuracy under different pressure is also discussed in this paper.At last this paper summarizes the results of researches, and raises its own outlook for subsequent studies.