Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
th
International Conference on Composite Science and Technology
(ICCST/5), February 2005, Sharjah, UAE
Triaxially Woven CFRP Deployable Reector Antennas
Lin Tze Tan
Department of Engineering,
University of Cambridge,
Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ,UK
Abstract
We have recently proposed a new concept for stiened deployable reectors consisting of a thin
parabolic carbon-bre-reinforced-plastic (CFRP) shell stiened along the edge by an elastically
collapsible stiener. This reector is manufactured from triaxially woven CFRP composite and
has a completely passive i.e. no controls deployment mechanism. Residual cooling stresses from
the manufacturing process often induce relatively large distortions in thin CFRP structures
potentially reducing their surface accuracy. It is shown by analysis that these distortions are
reduced by a factor of 80 compared to an unstiened reector. With the correct parameters
for the stiening system, the paper concludes that it is possible to increase the stiness of thin
shell reectors by at least 37 times and the deployed fundamental frequency by 10 times.
1 Introduction
The Stiened Spring Back Reector [7] consists of a thin-walled, parabolic dish made of carbon
bre reinforced plastic (CFRP), which is then elastically folded for launch on a spacecraft.
These reectors are constructed as a single piece, without any joints or hinges, and hence are
relatively inexpensive to manufacture. The folding concept, rst proposed by Robinson [3] is
both simple and eective: opposite edges of the reector are pulled towards each other by about
half their original distance and are held by tie cables, see Figure 1. The antenna is designed
to t in the normally unused space at the top of the rocket fairing or around the payload,
its largest stowed dimension being slightly larger than the deployed diameter. Once in orbit,
the tie cables that hold the reector in its packaged conguration are released by pyrotechnic
, +60
, 60
e
=
1
1 +
D
4F
i=1
A
i
( z
i
z
i
)
2
n
i=1
A
i
(1)
5
where A
i
is the surface area associated with the i
th
node, z
i
is the z coordinate of the best
t paraboloid, D is the plan diameter, F the focal length and n the total number of nodes,
for this case 20,000. The rms error of the unstiened reector with its distortions due to
residual strains was found to be 1.82 mm. The addition of the stiener reduces this error to
0.1041 mm, a reduction by a factor of 17.6 compared to the unstiened reector. It should
also be noted that the surface accuracy of the perfect reector i.e. the undistorted FE mesh,
is 1.6017 10
5
mm. This is basically a measure of how well the triangular shell elements
approximate the given parabolic shape, and is hence a very accurate representation.
5 Results & Conclusions
The unstiened reector has a mass of 15.37 kg and a deployed fundamental frequency of
0.432 Hz, while the stiened reector has a mass of 18.18 kg and fundamental bending frequency
of 4.755 Hz. Hence the stiener makes up 15% of the mass of the reector but increases the
deployed stiness by more than 10 fold and the manufacturing distortions by about 80-fold. The
increased surface accuracy of the stiened reector can potentially increase its operating range
past its original specication of Ka band (30 GHz) up to 60 GHz
1
. Hence the reector concept
allows for a high accuracy light weight reector which is sti in the deployed conguration yet
exible enough to be folded elastically and passively deployed.
References
[1] Fujita, A., Hamada, H., and Maekawa, Z. Tensile properties of carbon ber triaxial woven fabric
composites. Journal of Composite Materials 27, 15 (1993), 14281442.
[2] Matsumoto, T., Kiuchi, N., and Watanabe, A. Light weight graphite fabric for satellite rectors. In
Journes Internationales de Nice sur les Antennes International Symposium on Antennas (November 2002),
vol. 2, Journes Internationales de Nice sur les Antennes, pp. 5760.
[3] Robinson, S. A. Simplied spacecraft antenna reector for stowage in conned envelopes. Publication
number: 0534110A1, 31 March 1993. European Patent Application led by Hughes Aircraft Company.
[4] Ruze, J. Antenna tolerance theory a review. IEEE 54, 4 (April 1966), 633640.
[5] Skelton, J. Triaxially woven fabrics: Their structure and properties. Textile Research Journal 41, 8 (August
1971), 637647.
[6] Strang, G. Linear algebra and its applications, third ed. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers,
San Diego, U.S.A., 1988.
[7] Tan, L. T. Thin-Walled Elastically Foldable Reector Structures. PhD thesis, Department of Engineering,
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ, UK, December 2002.
[8] Tan, L. T., and Pellegrino, S. Stiness design for spring back reectors. In 43rd
AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference (Denver Col-
orado, 22-25 April 2002). AIAA 2002-1498.
1
using a stringent accuracy goal of /50
6