Abstract
The trade-off between the design phase and the experimental setup is crucial in satisfying the accuracy requirements of large deployable reflectors. Manufacturing errors and tolerances change the root mean square (RMS) of the reflecting surface and require careful calibration of the tie-rod system to be able to fit into the initial design specifications. To give a possible solution to this problem, two calibration methods—for rigid and flexible ring truss supports, respectively—are described in this study. Starting from the acquired experimental data on the net nodal co-ordinates, the initial problem of satisfying the static equilibrium with the measured configuration is described. Then, two constrained optimization problems (for rigid or flexible ring truss supports) are defined to meet the desired RMS accuracy of the reflecting surface by modifying the tie lengths. Finally, a case study to demonstrate the validity of the proposed methods is presented.
Highlights
Satellite communications have become increasingly wide-spread, thanks to the possibility of having high transmitting capacities at a relatively low cost, compared to the establishment of a terrestrial broadcasting network
This paper describes a method for the tie-system calibration of large deployable reflectors (LDRs) with a rigid or flexible ring truss
In order to verify the validity of the proposed method, a case study of an asymmetric large deployable reflector, designed by Thales Alenia Space [53], is described
Summary
Satellite communications have become increasingly wide-spread, thanks to the possibility of having high transmitting capacities at a relatively low cost, compared to the establishment of a terrestrial broadcasting network. The main strategies followed by LDR developers and designers is to use the tie system, connecting front and rear nets, in order to locally move single nodes. This operation is long and delicate, but allows the adjustment of different error sources, such as manufacturing errors [7,8,9], material definition errors, clearance [10,11], friction [12,13], hysteresis [14], mechanical vibrations [15,16], and imperfect behaviour of the elastic properties of components.
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