A New Membrane Structural Conceptfor Solar Sails and Reflectors

摘要

Membranes have been proposed and applied for bothsolar sails and reflectors for some time. While attractivefor packaging and deployment, wrinkling for solar sailsand extreme sensitivity to vibration perturbations forreflectors remain a challenge. To this end, the presentpaper proposes a new design concept to alleviate bothwrinkling and vibration perturbations by surroundingthe membrane with web-like cable networks. A linearactive controller is applied along the outer perimetercables to enhance its vibration suppression ability. Akey feature of the present control strategy is to utilizethe cables to e?ect vibration suppression in the membranes.The e?ectiveness of the proposed structuraland control design is corroborated by carrying out nonlineartransient analysis, which accounts for the e?ectof wrinkles in the membrane.