Performance Research For The Mesh Materials Of The Large Deployable Reflector Antenna

The metal mesh is the key material of the Large Deployable Reflector Antenna.The mechanical performance and stability of the mesh material directly determines the performance and lifetime of space-borne antenna in foreign countries,the development and research on this mesh material were started early.And now it has been fully developed.However,we have not yet fully independent ability to produce the metal mesh antenna with good performance in our country.So in order to catch up with the international advanced technology,it is very important to study on this kind of the metal mesh antenna.It is necessary for the metal mesh antenna to have a series of mechanical properties because of the shape and maintaining of the metal mesh antenna and surface precision control in space.So it is also important for the future application and lifetime of the metal mesh antenna to test different mechanical properties of metal mesh.This paper achieved the goal-development of the metal mesh by optimizing the process line of metal mesh.Through the practice,the production process of the several main metal mesh material was determined.A concentric stranding method was used in the doubling.Ceramic wheel was used as the transmission part.A new warping creel was designed.The transformation of the warp let-off motion was made and a cam traversing mechanism.This paper achieved to design the mechanical properties testing methods of the metal mesh antenna by reference to the mechanical testing methods and standard of other high performance fiber mesh fabric.By using these methods,this paper achieved to test the mechanical properties of the metal mesh.Then the damage mechanism was primarily analyzed and the effect of several factors on the mechanical properties of metal mesh was investigated by experiment.The unidirectional mechanical properties of metal mesh were consistent with the tensile characteristics of warp knitting fabric and it had elasticity stability when the metal mesh was under the tension state.When the specimens underwent bi-axis tensile loading,the metal mesh doesn't distort easily and had different strength distribution.But only in one direction constraint,metal mesh will show higher strength and elastic elongation,which is helpful for metal structural stability and surface elasticity.Finally,this paper achieved to find the best warp knitting parameters to improve the mechanical properties of the metal mesh by research on the relationship between different knitting parameters and the mechanical properties of metal mesh.And the optimization values of the warp knitting parameters which could improve the isotropy of mesh fabric were given.