Folding behaviour of a deployable composite cabin for space habitats – Part 2: Analytical investigation

Abstract

In the Part 1 of two companion papers, a deployable composite cabin (DCC) for space habitats was introduced and its folding behaviour was comprehensively studied. This Part 2 paper is dedicated to present an analytical model for rapidly predicting the folding behaviour of the DCC. Based on the classical Euler-Bernoulli beam model, the geometric and physical equations describing the folding behaviour of the DCC were established in this paper. By combining Maclaurin series expansion, orthogonal Chebyshev polynomials, Galerkin method and Harmonic balance method, analytical models for predicting the load-displacement curve and shape function of the DCC were presented. The analytical solution of compressive strength was derived from the principle of minimum total complementary potential energy, classical laminate theory and Tsai-Hill failure criterion. In order to validate the analytical model proposed in this paper, the prediction results were compared with experimental results and numerical simulation results in the Part 1, and the three were in good agreement. Finally, the effect of geometric parameters (i.e. arc length, axial length and thickness of the thin plate) on the folding behaviour of the DCC was further analyzed by using the analytical model.