Improvements in materials technologies for low-costs microsatellites structures: from aluminum to carbon fiber

Paper number

IAC-08.B4.6.A8

Author

Mr. Davide Bruzzi, University of Bologna, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Alessandro Tellini, University of Bologna, Italy

Coauthor

Dr. Enrico Troiani, University of Bologna, Italy

Year

2008

Abstract

Low-cost and low-weight microsatellites structures represent an extremely interesting challenge and an excellent technology workbench. The limited weights imposed by launch costs on a hand and the requirement of a safe satellite structure capable to withstand the loads and protect subsystems during launch on the other, induce researchers to evaluate a wide range of alternative solution from traditional technologies and material to advanced structures and concepts. The overall goal is to achieve the best compromise between weight, performances and costs.
 In this paper it will be presented the results of the improvement process which involved the structure of ALMASat-1, the first microsatellite of the University of Bologna. 
As an example the upper plate of the modular structure had been improved. Starting from the analysis of the actual component, realized from a machined aluminum plate, it has been possible to define the critical parameters as reference for performance comparison between different technologies and materials. The first frequency of the modal analysis, as well as the overall shape of the plate,  have been taken as reference points for the following procedure.
Once defined the new materials and technologies, carbon fiber sheets lamination at present, it has been possible to evaluate the total plate thickness, number of layers and their orientation thanks to an iterative procedure.  A customized ANSYS script has been developed to dynamically modify the thickness of the plate and to perform a sequence of modal analyses until the first natural frequency calculated was equal to the reference value previously set.
In order to verify the dynamic behavior of the plate in the launch environment, a further Power Spectral Density analysis has been performed evaluating the statistical results in terms of displacements, accelerations, global and layered stresses and frequency response by using advanced post-processing techniques.
The overall weight reduction has been verified, maintaining the same strength and stiffness of the aluminum actual structure.
Therefore a new carbon fiber upper plate will be produced and tested in order to correlate numerical and experimental results and confirm the technology improvement success.
After that the described procedure will be applied to other ALMASat-1 structural elements.

Abstract document

IAC-08.B4.6.A8.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-08.B4.6.A8.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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