Similarity Criteria and Associated Design Procedures for Scaling Solar Sail Systems

摘要

Scaling laws applicable to a class of solar sail systems are developed. The scaling laws consist of four similarity criteria that must be satisfied in selecting primary sail system parameters to achieve similarity between a model and a prototype sail. These similarity criteria can be used to guide the design of scaled experimental tests for solar sails and in analyzing the results from such tests. The similarity criteria are derived directly from the governing equations for a solar sail system model. Note that, since the focus of the study is on obtaining similarity criteria global shape behavior of the sail system, the present analysis ignores effects such as wrinkling and nonlinear buckling behavior. Improved correlation could potentially be gained by enhancing the approach with advanced analytical approaches that have previously been employed to study membrane surface profiles on both the global and local scales.