Mechanical Shock Wave Suppression Structure in Hold-Down and Release Apparatus of Spacecraft

Abstract

A lightweight and compact structural solution for mechanical shock suppression in spacecraft, such as the hold-down and release apparatus of satellites, is a critical and thorny issue. In this work, a ring-shaped structure is introduced to isolate mechanical waves within cylindrical shells. The underlying mechanism is that the ring-shaped structure undergoes different forms of deformation to counteract different modes of incident waves. A subwavelength Mn-Cu alloy ring is designed as a shock wave barrier in a typical spacecraft hold-down and release apparatus structure with multimodal wave excitation. We experimentally reveal that the Mn-Cu alloy ring reduces the peak value of the acceleration frequency response by 53.4% within a wide frequency range from 1 to 10 kHz. Meanwhile, in the time domain, the instantaneous acceleration peak can be weakened by 37.9%. This work provides a new strategy for shock control of shell structures in aerospace engineering and related fields.