Pretension Design and Analysis of Deployable Mesh Antenna considering the Effect of Gravity

Abstract

The difference between the space and the earth environment has significantly influenced the shape accuracy of the antenna reflector surface. With the increasing demand for the aperture of the antenna reflector, gravity has become one of the main factors that restrict the accuracy. In this paper, a new method for pretension design considering the effect of gravity is proposed. The design surface can be well restored to the ideal surface in orbit. Meanwhile, this method can avoid flipping antenna reflectors or extensive experiments for modification during ground adjustment. Then, the feasibility and effectiveness of the design method are validated by several numerical simulations. Moreover, the results are compared with the previous method and the differences have been discussed in detail. Finally, the effects of cable radius, cable length, and elastic modulus of the mesh reflector have been researched, respectively.