Performance analysis and mission applications of a new solar sail concept based on crossed booms with tip-deployed membranes

Seefeldt, Patric; Grundmann, Jan Thimo; Hillebrandt, Martin; Zander, Martin E.

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2020.10.001

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Even though the emphasis of this study is on the investigation of the truss system, the sunshade’s global structural system should not remain unmentioned. Here, a potentially viable concept envisions an evolutionary, modular, and scalable sunshade design with incremental development stages spanning several decades: In the initial phase, sunshades are launched from Earth utilizing unfolding mechanisms 50 – 53 . Subsequently, in-space manufacturing and assembly (ISMA) technologies 54 must be applied, considering modularity and segmentation of foil support truss structures 48 .…”

Section: Conceptual Design Of the Sunshade Structural Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-span fiber composite truss made by coreless filament winding for large-scale satellite structural systems demonstrated on a planetary sunshade concept

Mindermann,

Acker,

Wegner

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Climate change necessitates exploring innovative geoengineering solutions to mitigate its effects—one such solution is deploying planetary sunshade satellites at Sun–Earth Lagrange point 1 to regulate solar radiation on Earth directly. However, such long-span space structures present unique technical challenges, particularly structural scalability, on-orbit manufacturing, and in-situ resource utilization. This paper proposes a structural concept for the sunshade’s foil support system and derives from that a component-level modular system for long-span fiber composite lightweight trusses using coreless filament winding. Within a laboratory-scale case study, the component scalability, as well as the manufacturing and material impacts, were experimentally investigated by bending deflection testing. Based on these experimental results, FE models of the proposed structural concept were calibrated to estimate the maximum displacement and mass of the foil support structure, while comparing the influences of foil edge length, orbital load case, and material selection.

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Section: Conceptual Design Of the Sunshade Structural Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-span fiber composite truss made by coreless filament winding for large-scale satellite structural systems demonstrated on a planetary sunshade concept

Mindermann,

Acker,

Wegner

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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“…In this context, an important problem usually faced by solar sail designers during the preliminary design phase of such a large spacecraft structure [12] is the characterization of both the membrane reflective film [13,14] and the long, slender, stiffening booms [15][16][17]. In fact, during this important phase of the spacecraft design, designers are asked to analyze a series of different configurations [18] through complex numerical simulations in order to evaluate the characteristic performance parameters of the solar sail to be used in the classical trajectory analysis [19,20]. A noteworthy example is offered by the project supported by the Italian Space Agency on the development of solar photonic propulsion; here, the Helianthus mission was chosen as a case study [17,21,22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of a Solar Sail Membrane for Abaqus-Based Simulations

Boni,

Bassetto,

Quarta

2024

Aerospace

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Photonic solar sails are a class of advanced propellantless propulsion systems that use thin, large, lightweight membranes to convert the momentum of light from the Sun into thrust for space navigation. The conceptually simple nature of such a fascinating propulsion system requires, however, advances in materials, packaging, deployment, and control of a very large space structure. In this context, the finite element method (FEM), implemented in a robust and flexible software such as the commercial software Abaqus, represents a fundamental instrument to progress with the practical study of this promising propulsion system concept. In particular, in a typical (medium-size) square solar sail design process, the FEM-based analyses are used to better understand fundamental aspects of structural design, such as, for example, membrane pre-tensioning, deformations induced by Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP), and the buckling of reinforcing booms. The aim of this study is to describe an effective procedure to model a classical square solar sail structure into a typical commercial software for finite element analysis, such as the well-known suite Abaqus. In particular, we compare various membrane pre-tensioning techniques (useful for increasing the membrane’s bending stiffness) and describe possible approaches to applying the SRP-induced load in a realistic way. Additionally, the flexibility of the structure under the solar sail loads and the criticality of section shape and boom size are taken into account, with particular regard to the problem of structural instability. In this context, performance and critical issues of different structural solutions are discussed and compared, allowing an improvement in the preliminary design phase of solar sails to be obtained.

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“…The composite laminate layup dominates the mechanical properties and deformation characteristics [26][27][28][29] of the composite structure. Nevertheless, the deformation characteristics and strain energy distribution of bistable CFRP composite shells during snap through and coiling up have been rarely studied due to difficulties in precise experimental measurements of extremely thin-walled structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental validation study on snap through and coiling up of deployable composite shells

Chang,

Zhao,

et al. 2023

Polymer Composites

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Bistable reeled composite shells (BRCS) have been widely used in deployable space structures due to advanced properties of light weight and large volume reduction. A finite element simulation and experimental validation to study the transition of BRCS between their two stable states are performed. In this article, multiscale representative volume element (RVE) modeling is used to compute the equivalent mechanical properties of carbon/epoxy plain woven fabrics that were utilized to construct the deployable composite laminates, followed by experimental verification. The deformation characteristics and strain energy distribution of the deployable composite shell (DCS) during snap through and coiling up are investigated using finite element analysis (FEA) and verified by strain‐gauge and digital image correlation (DIC) tests. The results show that the strain energy distribution in the snap through and coiling up of the carbon/epoxy plain woven BRCS with laminate stacking sequence of [+45/−45] is approximately symmetric. Additionally, an offset phenomena is observed during the coiling up of the BRCS in the finite element modeling. A parametric analysis is complemented to investigate effects of fiber angles on the deformation characteristics and strain energy distribution of the shell structures during snap through and coiling up.Highlights Shell deformation during snap through and coiling up was investigated. DIC test was performed to capture the shell deformation. Strain energy distribution of the deployable composite shell was discussed. Offset phenomena are observed during the coiling up.

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Performance analysis and mission applications of a new solar sail concept based on crossed booms with tip-deployed membranes

Cited by 19 publications

References 10 publications

Long-span fiber composite truss made by coreless filament winding for large-scale satellite structural systems demonstrated on a planetary sunshade concept

Long-span fiber composite truss made by coreless filament winding for large-scale satellite structural systems demonstrated on a planetary sunshade concept

Characterization of a Solar Sail Membrane for Abaqus-Based Simulations

Experimental validation study on snap through and coiling up of deployable composite shells

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