Design study of a square solar sail architecture

Greschik, Gyula; Mikulas, Martin M.

doi:10.2514/6.2001-1259

Cited by 36 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Therefore, the analyst is typically forced to painfully manipulate numerical control until some solution is produced or, often, to also "tweak" the model itself by introducing rudimentary simplifications and assumptions into wrinkle mechanics, environmental and loading conditions, as well as dynamics. The reliability of the results so produced keenly balances on the simplifications so made, much more so than in case of design, because its purpose of high fidelity scrutiny dooms analysis to be more sensitive than design to modeling details, even if the analyst is keenly aware of this problem [42][43][44]. The reliability of the output suffers; uncertainties of unknown severity infect the results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whatever its detailed definition, therefore, this measure will well quantify the obvious fact that performance scalability is intimately related to how compression arises and is supported in the structure. If compression member lengths and loads increase with the sail size, as in square sails, then this nonlinear penalty is inescapable, albeit it can be mitigated somewhat by streamlining the force flow pattern [14,15]. This penalty can be eliminated or reduced to a (nearly) linear degree only if compression does not span global dimensions (as in various spinning designs [16][17][18][19]) or in some cases of modular construction (e.g., the hoop sail [20][21][22]).…”

Section: Scalability Of Solar Sail Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Solar Sail Scalability and a "Truly Scalable" Architecture: The Space Tow

Greschik

2007

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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Solar sail scalability is often understood to be the quality that renders a structural architecture applicable to (or efficient under) ever larger global dimensions. At the heart of this definition is the impact of extreme or, rather, extremely large, dimensions on structural performance. Scalability, however, can also be interpreted as a much broader issue with far more critical importance to solar sail engineering, as the dimensional indifference of technologies and engineering steps that (will one day) make solar sailing a reality. Scalability, in fact, the lack thereof, in this comprehensive sense which is implied in the present work is the single most serious challenge to sailcraft engineering, hindering all major steps of development: design, fabrication, and component and system verification. The systematic review of the dimensional issues for these steps presented in this paper, therefore, offers valuable insight into engineering bottlenecks and helps to identify desirable structural and design qualities to mitigate them. These qualities are consecutively combined into an architecture, the space tow, which consists of a sequence of like sail elements linked with filaments. Some of the performance metrics and unique features of this design, scalable in many more ways than most alternatives, are reviewed. Nomenclature A = total sail surface area A c = filament truss longeron cross section area A 0 = surface area of one sail panel A 1 = cross section area of single filament a, a c = acceleration; characteristic acceleration b s = sail panel film nominal billow magnitude c = sail panel square edge d 1 = diameter of single filament E, = Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio e z0 , e z = boom tip lateral deflection, with linear and nonlinear approximation F = thrust in the sailcraft direction F 1 = maximum force in one filament truss longeron F r = thrust in the illumination (sun-radial) direction F 0x , F 0z = sail panel boom tip load axial and lateral components g p = technological gap between facing panel boom surfaces in stowage h = sail panel boom total depth I = cross section moment of inertia L = space tow length, nl L b = sail panel radial boom length l = filament truss bay length (spacing of sail panels) l d = length of filament truss diagonal M = steering torque m = sail panel mass m p = mass of payload (spacecraft without the tow) m s = mass of space tow structure (filaments and panels) m 1p = average mass of filament truss bay n = number of space tow truss bays n 1 = number of filaments in truss longeron at base P e = panel boom Euler critical load, 2 E 0 I 0 =2L b 2 p ef0 = maximum effective photon pressure at one astronomical unit from the sun, s p s0 p s0 = ideal solar light pressure at one astronomical unit from the sun, 9:126 Pa T = temperature t = thickness t 0 = sail panel boom reinforcing strip thickness on each side of sail w 0 = sail panel boom reinforcing strip width = offset angle; angle between the spacecraft orientation and the direction of illumination, cf. Fig. 1 T;1= coefficient of therm...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Scalability Of Solar Sail Architecturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Sail Scalability and a "Truly Scalable" Architecture: The Space Tow

Greschik

2007

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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“…The interest for this kind of problem can be traced back to the exhaustive paper by Greschik and Mikulas,19 in which the design parameters of a square solar sail are shown to be very complex to manage in a comprehensive (and closed-form) way using analytical methods only. In this context, Murphy et al 20 discuss one of the first attempts of using a finite elements method approach to perform a dynamic structural analysis of a square solar sail.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar sail structural analysis via improved finite element modeling

Boni

Mengali

Quarta

2016

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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Despite the existence of many studies about the structural analysis of a square solar sail, the need for obtaining reliable numerical results still poses a number of practical issues to be solved. The aim of this paper is to propose a new method that improves the existing analysis techniques. In this sense, the solar sail is modeled using distributed sail-boom connections, and its structural behavior in free flight is studied, using the inertia relief method, at different incidence angles of the incoming solar radiation. The proposed approach is able to circumvent the onset of numerical convergence problems by means of suitable strategies. A nonlinear analysis is carried out starting from an initial geometrical configuration in which the whole solar sail is perturbed using a linear combination of the first global buckling modes, obtained with a static eigenvalue analysis. Key points of the procedure are the application of a correct sail pre-stress, a clever choice of the type of elements to be used in the finite element analysis and the use of a suitable mesh refinement. The performance of the new approach have been successfully tested on square solar sails with side length varying from relatively small to medium-to-large sizes, in the range of 10-100 m. A detailed analysis is presented for a reference 20 m Â 20 m square solar sail, where the paper shows that the suggested procedure is able to guarantee accurate results without the need of additional stabilization technique. In particular, the vibration global mode shapes and frequencies of the solar sail are correctly described even in presence of unsymmetrical loading conditions. In other terms, the numerical analysis is completed without any convergence problem and any disturbing local modes.

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“…The structural behavior of the solar sail is being analyzed from different perspectives (experimental, numerical, etc.) by various researchers (to mention only few of the studies, see, for instance, [1][2][3][4]. )…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slender Solar Sail Booms: Finite Element Analysis

Stanciulescu

Virgin

Laursen

2007

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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Various aspects related to the numerical (finite element) analysis of the support structure for solar sails are analyzed. Static analyses of single booms (simple beam and isogrid configurations) are presented and dynamic properties are extracted before and beyond the buckling load. Numerical difficulties associated with the case of buckling under nonconservative loading are also explored using as a reference example von Beck's problem, for which a closed-form solution for comparison is available. A study of the entire support structure for a square solar sail (four connected booms) is also presented. In all analyses, attention is focused on the prediction of the postbuckling (large deflection) behavior, including dynamics.

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Design study of a square solar sail architecture

Cited by 36 publications

References 2 publications

Solar Sail Scalability and a "Truly Scalable" Architecture: The Space Tow

Solar Sail Scalability and a "Truly Scalable" Architecture: The Space Tow

Solar sail structural analysis via improved finite element modeling

Slender Solar Sail Booms: Finite Element Analysis

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