Static Stiffness Analysis of High Stiffness Rotary Hinge Locking Mechanism for SAR Antenna

Abstract

Rotary hinge plays an important role in the support structure of the deployable planar antenna. The high stiffness hinge locking mechanism is designed in this study which is composed of active half, follower half, pre-meshing spring and rotary axes. The static stiffness of the mechanism is investigated by theoretical analysis, numerical method and experiment. The test apparatus is constructed in order to measure the prototype. The tests included locking force, locked stiffness, drive torque are performed which are used to verify the analysis and the design.