Preliminary Experiments on Dynamic Properties of Deployable Spinning Membrane
- Paper number
IAC-05-C2.P.19
- Author
Prof. Hiroshi Furuya, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. Yosuke Inoue, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Year
2005
- Abstract
The basic dynamic properties of the rotationally skew fold membrane for spinning solar sail are experimentally examined. The stable deployment of spinning solar sail membrane is requested as well as the packaging size, easiness for packaging and deploying, reliability for stable deployment, and manufacture-ability. We have proposed a concept of rotationally skew fold for the spinning solar sail to meet with the structural requirements. The fold is characterized by the parallel fold line skewed with respect to the radial direction, and is completely foldable. The packaging height is equal to the distance of the parallel fold line, and therefore, the height is independent to the membrane diameter. In general, as the membrane thickness is less than 10 micro meter, the effects of thickness on the fold are negligible. Also, as the fold lines is not concentrated at the center area, the rotationally skew fold membrane is easily packed with wrinkle-free. The dynamic properties are significant for designing the deployable membrane. To investigate the dynamic characteristics of the rotationally skew fold membrane, some experimental models were experimentally demonstrated with polyimide film. As the results, the dynamic properties in terms of the geometrical properties with respect to the spin rate are examined. The experimental results show that the spin-direction fold membrane realizes quick deployment, and the fold pitch affects the deployment characteristics.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-C2.P.19.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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