J4 ›› 2015, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (1): 49-55.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1001-2400.2015.01.008

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Form-finding method of equal tension cable networks for space mesh antennas

FAN Yesen1,2;LI Tuanjie1;MA Xiaofei2;LI Zhengjun2   

  1. (1. School of Mechano-electronic Engineering, Xidian Univ., Xi'an  710071, China;
    2. Xi'an Institute of Space Radio Technology, Xi'an  710100, China)
  • Received:2014-01-07 Online:2015-02-20 Published:2015-04-14
  • Contact: FAN Yesen E-mail:fanyesen@126.com

Abstract:

To design large space deployable antennas with lightweight and stable cable-net structures, a form-finding method is presented to design equal tension cable networks. The nodes of the networks are regarded as the points that move on the ideal reflective surface. The nodes move on the ideal surfaces of the mesh antennas under the action of the resultant forces acting on the nodes, and the tensions in the cables remain equivalent. After a period of movement, the resultant forces acting on the nodes decrease to zero gradually, and the whole system is considered to be in equilibrium. The unstrained length of each cable can be determined according to the deformed length of the cable and the tension force in the cable. A numerical example of a hoop truss cable-net antenna was calculated, and the equal tension cable structure of the mesh antenna was obtained, whose equilibrium state was validated by the finite element method. The calculated results show that the method presented is accurate, valid and feasible. The calculated results are compared with the calculated results based on the minimum norm method and the equal force density method, which shows that the mechanical performance of the network that was obtained using the equal tension method is better than that by using the other two methods. The method can be used to design the cable-net structures of space mesh antennas.

Key words: equal tension cable network, form-finding method, space mesh antenna, static analysis, finite element method

CLC Number: 

  • V423,TH122