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NASA NTRS · 20060050767

Dynamic Analysis of Large In-Space Deployable Membrane Antennas

Fang, Houfei·Yang, Bingen·Ding, Hongli·Hah, John·Quijano, Ubaldo·Huang, John
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Abstract

This paper presents a vibration analysis of an eight-meter diameter membrane reflectarray antenna, which is composed of a thin membrane and a deployable frame. This analysis process has two main steps. In the first step, a two-variable-parameter (2-VP) membrane model is developed to determine the in-plane stress distribution of the membrane due to pre-tensioning, which eventually yields the differential stiffness of the membrane. In the second step, the obtained differential stiffness is incorporated in a dynamic equation governing the transverse vibration of the membrane-frame assembly. This dynamic equation is then solved by a semi-analytical method, called the Distributed Transfer Function Method (DTFM), which produces the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the antenna. The combination of the 2-VP model and the DTFM provides an accurate prediction of the in-plane stress distribution and modes of vibration for the antenna.

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Fang, Houfei, Yang, Bingen, Ding, Hongli, Hah, John, Quijano, Ubaldo, Huang, John. 2006-01-01. Dynamic Analysis of Large In-Space Deployable Membrane Antennas. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20060050767

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