Numerical and experimental investigation on dynamics of deployable space telescope experiencing deployment and attitude adjustment motions coupled with laminated composite shell

Nonlinear dynamic modeling methods for a flower-like clustered deployable space telescope (DST) with laminated composite material experiencing large deployment and attitude adjustment motions is proposed in present work. The flexible mirrors are discretized into shell elements in absolute node coordinate formulation (ANCF) considering nonlinear structures instead of using conventional shell elements in hybrid coordinate formulation (HCF). Meanwhile the stress–strain relations of laminated composite mirrors with considering nonlinear material and geometric properties are respectively deduced by high order shear deformation theory and continuum mechanics. Then, the accuracy of dynamic behavior is investigated by comparison of the results obtained by using ANCF and HCF, and it is indicated that ANCF shell elements are suitable for solving large deformation and deployment dynamic analysis of DST with high accuracy and strong convergence by numerical simulations. Further, the experiments for evaluating the dynamic behavior of surrounding mirrors with simultaneous deployment in different deployment strategies are conducted. Numerical results are in good agreement with those obtained from experiments to validate the correctness of the present nonlinear modeling formulation. And, the experiment and numerical simulation of the primary mirror experiencing attitude adjustment motions are also carried out. Those results illustrate the performance of the dynamic properties of DST with different deployment strategies and laminated composite structures in the present modeling method. These conclusions will have significant theory and engineering practice values for predicting surface accuracy, pointing accuracy and vibration performance of DST mechanism.Communicated by Bogdan Gavrea.