Structural Design And Analysis Of Space Deployable Mast

Deployable mast is an important part of the satellite antenna system which is themost basic one-dimensional deployable structure. As a kind of effective supportingstructure, deployable mast can be used for the large deployed antennas, support plate ofsolar panels and telescope, and space mechanical arms and so on. Whether antennadeployable truss can unfurl to the appointed place in time affect the success of thewhole antenna launching task directly．In addition, relative to the satellite platform,deployable mast is a flexible multibody system which structure parameters affect thewhole antenna system’s dynamical characteristic greatly，further affect the otherdynamical design performance and pose adjustment of satellite．Combined the research actuality and the development of the deployable mast athome and abroad with the requirements of our project team, various types of thedeployable masts are analyzed. Telescopic mast is selected as the best design structurewhich has greater carrying capacity, lower cost, better structural stability and reliability.According to the form of sleeve section, locking methods, the way to drive and expand,specific structural design for the telescopic mast is designed with UG, and two kinds ofunlock solutions for the ground experiments are also designed.Motion simulations of the telescopic mast model are carried out with UG andADAMS. Through the calculation and analysis of motion simulations, it showsstructural design which satisfies the functional requirements of the telescopic mast isreasonable and verifies the feasibility of the design model. The telescopic mast model isimported into ANSYS Workbench which is a finite element analysis software used tocarry out the static and dynamic analyses, then the strength of a locking mechanism ischecked, and those analyses results confirm the reliability of the design model. Tosatisfy the light requirement, the quality optimizations of the section size on thetelescopic mast sleeve and the sleeve wall are carried out, which reduce the weight ofthe telescopic mast, the production and launch costs. This study provides a reference forthe further research and design of the telescopic mast.