Research on Damping Mechanism with Resetting Capability for Axial Vibration Control of Satellite Antenna

Abstract

With the development of space technology, the large scale space deployable antennas gradually become one of the key research themes of research. The basic requirements for large scale satellite antennas are the characteristics of light in weight and high in profile accuracy. The low-frequency and large-amplitude vibration of the large scale antennas is easily excited when working in an environment with zero gravity. In order to suppress the vibration of large scale deployable satellite antenna, a new type of damping mechanism with resetting capability is presented to improve the ability of vibration energy consumption and ensure the dynamic characteristics of the radial rib structure containing the presented profile accuracy of the antenna. The rod making up the deployment mechanism of the antennas is divided into two parts which connected by using the shape memory alloy (SMA) wires through guiding mechanism. Meanwhile, a metal rubber is fixed and pressed between two parts of the rod by SMA wires. The ability of the friction energy dissipation of the metal rubber is utilized to suppress the axial vibration of the rods. The super elasticity of the SMA wires is used to provide the restoring force for ensuring the dimensional stability of the rod. In this paper, the design principle of the axial self-resetting damping structure is introduced in detail. And, the dynamic characteristics of the radial rib structure containing the presented damping mechanism are investigated by using the software ANSYS. The simulation results show that the vibration amplitude of the radial rib of antennas has been reduced significantly.