Experimental verification of application possibility for cable network including compression members

• Published in: Kikai Gakkai ronbunshū = Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers Vol. 84; no. 862; p. 17-00498
• Main Authors: TAKANO, Yuichiro, NAGAHAMA, Hirotaka, KOYAMA, Hiroki, MIYASAKA, Akihiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers 2018
• Subjects: Cable network; Compression members; Experiment; Manufacturing error; Structural analysis; Surface adjustment; Tension distribution
• ISSN: 2187-9761
• DOI: 10.1299/transjsme.17-00498

In order to achieve advanced missions, it is necessary to develop satellite with large aperture reflectors. Tension truss structure is effective for reducing the weight of the antenna. However, the total strain energy of the cables increases with the number of cables. Consequently, a support structure must be sufficiently rigid to prevent deformation of the surface. The reduction of the reflector's weight can be achieved if the tensile force of the cables decreases, while maintaining the required surface accuracy. Therefore, a surface design method in which compression members are located on the cable network instead of tension cables had been proposed. It was found that cable tension can be decreased within the required surface accuracy based on an analytical estimation. However, the cable tension can be changed after an adjustment of the surface accuracy to eliminate manufacturing and assembling errors. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method based on an experiment including an adjustment of the surface accuracy. We measure the surface accuracy and reaction force from a support structure using assembled cable-network models. As a result, the total cable strain energy of the cable network with compression members can be decreased by half of that without compression members.