Deployment analysis and optimization of a flexible deployable structure for large synthetic aperture radar antennas

Abstract

Flexible deployment analysis and optimization of a novel deployable structure for deploying and supporting a 28 m long satellite synthetic aperture radar antenna are carried out in this study. Three stages are conducted in the deploying process: (1) acceleration, (2) uniform velocity, and (3) deceleration phases. The deployment experiments of the ground prototype show that the deployment angles among the antenna panels in the acceleration and deceleration phases are desynchronized. Flexible deployment dynamics is analyzed, and three indexes are identified to describe the deployment including deployment synchronism, steady driving torque, and maximum strain energy. An approach to optimize the auxiliary spring is presented to solve the desynchronized deployment problem. The response surface method is employed to model the optimization objective. The optimization and experimental results prove the feasibility of the proposed deployment analysis and optimization theory. The results of this work could be applied to other large deployable structures.