| This paper discusses and evaluates a staged ground verification methodology for refining models of a complex elastic deployment. Verification of the complex deployment of space structures using ground testing is difficult due to environmental effects such as gravity and aerodynamic loads. The method presented here uses ground test results from individual stages of deployment, thus simplifying test procedures and analysis, to refine and verify a model that predicts the coupled, multi-stage deployment of the system. After results from each stage test are used to refine and update the staged models, a coupled-stage deployment is both simulated and tested. The two-stage coupled simulation is found to match the test data within the measurement precision, validating the contact-coupled modeling methodology. The results indicate that staged testing is a promising approach to the ground verification of complex deployments. |
