Application Of Inflatable Structures In Large Spaceborne Antenna

Satellite reflector antenna is a part of deployable space structures. It has a significant meaning of national defence and civilian use. So it has a long meaning for the research of satellite reflector antenna. A new deployable structure with folded-loop and folded-rib is presented in this thesis. In this kind of antenna, rigid structure applies the main shape, and the inflatable thin-membrane tubes and torus as support components for antenna. At first part of the thesis, different kinds of antenna are compared between inland and outland, and emphasized on inflatable deployable antenna. Based on the analysis of different kinds of antennas, the new deployable structure is presented, and computer modelings of inflatable tubes and inflatable torus are built in this article.Use the ANSYS software, several static analyses of inflatable structures are performed. First, rigidized inflatable tube is analyzed. The rigidized tube has carrying capacity like thin shell. One end of the inflatable tube modeling was fixed, and the other is free. Applied force on the free end, the modeling was solved. Second, a small inner pressure and exterior load are supplied to make an ideal torus deformed as the initial status of modeling. Then a certain inner pressure is supplied to inflate the pendulous torus to desired shape. In order to get the proper parameters for a reasonable design, an optimization analyse is carried out, the inner pressure and the thickness of the torus as the design variables.Use the LS-DYNA software, the dynamic analyses of inflatable structure are presented. The modeling of inflatable structure is folded. The inflatable structure has potential for exceptionally high mechanical packaging efficiency. Built the folded modeling with ANSYS, after meshing and constraining nodes, the Key file for LS-DYNA is output. There are some places of the output Key file need add and modify. And then, input the Key file to LS-DYNA solver. The result file is to read by using LS-PREPOST software. The dynamic analysis is more difficult, so two simple modeling are built to simulate inflatable tube and tours.Through the static analysis and the dynamic analysis, it is validated the feasibility of the inflatable structures as support components for antenna.