Investigating Member Length Imperfection Behavior of Curved Scissor-Type Structures

Abstract

Deployable Structures are generally those space structures being capable of turning from a folded and compact configuration into a predefined deployed configuration. These structures bear the loading in a deployed configuration. Scissor-type structures are one of the most complicated deployable structures, being stress-free in both deployed and folded configuration, but stresses could increase when explored deployment and perform a highly nonlinear behavior. There are mostly some defects and imperfections observed in fabricating such members and assembling the whole structure compared to the ideal model. The existence of these defects and geometric imperfections could influence the total or partial behavior of the structure. These imperfections could highly affect the structural deployability, the required force for deployment procedure and load bearing capacity of the deployed configuration. In the present study, the effect of member’s length imperfection due to inner, outer and a hybrid configuration of scissor-link Elements on the behavior of curved scissor-type structure are investigated.