Lightweight Design of Spaceborne CFRP Rigid Antenna Reflector

In order to overcome the shortcoming of space-borne rigid antenna reflector made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic(CFRP)skins with aluminum honeycomb sandwich(SAHS)structure,a new type of full CFRP skin plus rib(SPR)structure ring-focused parabolic surface antenna reflector with the size of 2.5 m×1.9 m is designed.Under the condition that the original caliber,surface type,and interface remain unchanged,the main influence factors are designed and controlled.First,from the perspective of high stiffness,lightweight,and easy to form,a finite element simulation software is used to analyze and optimize the layout of the rib,the cross-sectional shape of the rib,the size of the rib,and the matching of the size and the coefficients of thermal expansion(CTEs)of the rib and the skin.Second,two structures are prepared by the autoclave molding process.Third,the weight and the surface precision root mean square(RMS)value are measured.The results show that the fundamental frequency of the SPR structure is 142.2 Hz,which is 3.5 Hz higher;the number of the new structural parts is reduced by 40%,and the forming process is greatly simplified.The total weight of the new structure is 11.9 kg,lighter 42.5%,indicating that the weight loss is obvious.The RMS value is 0.15 mm,which is slightly lower 0.01 mm but satisfies the accuracy requirement not greater than 0.3 mm.It is proved that the SPR structure reflector is a superior structure of the lightweight spaceborne antenna reflector.

The Tianma 65 m radio telescope antenna

The Tianma 65 m radio telescope(TMRT)at Shanghai is a fully steerable single-dish radio telescope in China,operating at centimeter to millimeter wavelengths(1.25 GHz to 50 GHz).This paper presents details on the main specifications,design,performance analysis,testing,and construction of the telescope antenna.The measured total efficiency is better than 50%over the whole elevation angle range,first sidelobe levels are less than−20 dB,antenna system noise temperatures are less than 70 K at 30°elevation angle,and pointing accuracy is less than 3″.The measured and calculated results are in good agreement,verifying the effectiveness of the design and analysis.

An Elliptical-Beam Reflector Antenna forSatellite Communication System

An offset elliptical reflector antenna suitable for satellite application was designed and investigated when it was fed by a rectangular horn partially filled.with a dielectric..The.reflector antenna exhibits high gain, low cross polarization. low sidelines and an elliptical beam. Al- though this study has been carried out in view of possible satellite applications, it is clear that this. antenna. is also suitable for use in radar antennas.

Novel Surface Design of Deployable Reflector Antenna Based on Polar Scissor Structures

Space-deployable mechanisms can be used as supporting structures for large-diameter antennas in space engineering.This study proposes a novel method for constructing the surface design of space reflector antennas based on polar scissor units.The concurrency and deployability equations of the space scissor unit with definite surface constraints are derived using the rod and vector methods.Constraint equations of the spatial transformation for space n-edge polar scissor units are summarized.A new closed-loop deployable structure,called the polar scissor deployable antenna(PSDA),is designed by combining planar polar scissor units with spatial polar scissor units.The overconstrained problem is solved by releasing the curve constraint that locates at the end-point of the planar scissor mechanism.Kinematics simulation and error analysis are performed.The results show that the PSDA can effectively fit the paraboloid of revolution.Finally,deployment experiments verify the validity and feasibility of the proposed design method,which provides a new idea for the construction of large space-reflector antennas.

Effect of Facet Displacement on Radiation Field and Its Application for Panel Adjustment of Large Reflector Antenna

Large reflector antennas are widely used in radars, satellite communication, radio astronomy, and so on. The rapid developments in these fields have created demands for development of better performance and higher surface accuracy. However, low accuracy and low effi- ciency are the common disadvantages for traditional panel alignment and adjustment. In order to improve the surface accuracy of large reflector antenna, a new method is pre- sented to determinate panel adjustment values from far field pattern. Based on the method of Physical Optics （PO）, the effect of panel facet displacement on radiation field value is derived. Then the linear system is constructed between panel adjustment vector and far field pattern. Using the method of Singular Value Decomposition （SVD）, the adjustment value for all panel adjustors are obtained by solving the linear equations. An experiment is conducted on a 3.7 m reflector antenna with 12 segmented panels. The results of simulation and test are similar, which shows that the presented method is feasible. Moreover, thediscussion about validation shows that the method can be used for many cases of reflector shape. The proposed research provides the instruction to adjust surface panels efficiently and accurately.

B-spline surface fitting and simplified GO/PO analysis of subreflector correction for large Cassegrain antenna distortion compensation

The main surface of a large Cassegrain antenna consists of a large number of panels. There are inevitably random and systematic errors which will degrade the antenna pattern and limit its applicability when working at high frequencies. Correcting the subreflector surface is difficult to describe by a global expansion effectively with a small amount of data. This paper presents a simple and clear way for correcting the subreflector surface of a large Cassegrain antenna for achieving such compensation. The advantage of the method is that the geometrical optics （GO） analysis is extremely simplified by the concept of equivalent prime-focus paraboloid, and corrected deformations of the subreflector surface are determined by simple formulas which represent the relationship between distortions of the subreflector surface and phase of the main surface current. The final shape of the subreflector surface is represented by a B-spline surface. To obtain a satisfactory antenna pattern with the simplest subreflector surface, the optimal number of B-spline patches are searched by particle swarm optimization （PSO）. The shaping process is verified by compensating a 22-m Cassegrain antenna whose main reflector has 96 panels. The results are satisfactory and demonstrate the simplicity and effectiveness of the approach.

An adjustment method for active reflector of large high-frequency antennas considering gain and boresight

The design of the Qitai 110 m Radio Telescope（QTT） with large aperture and very high working frequency（115 GHz） was investigated in Xinjiang, China. The results lead to a main reflector with high surface precision and high pointing precision. In this paper, the properties of active surface adjustment in a deformed parabolic reflector antenna are analyzed. To assure the performance of large reflector antennas such as gain and boresight, which can be obtained by utilizing an electromechanical coupling model, and satisfy them simultaneously, research on active surface adjustment applied to a new parabolic reflector as target surface has been done. Based on the initial position of actuators and the relationship between adjustment points and target points, a novel mathematical model and a program thatdirectly calculates the movements of actuators have been developed for guiding the active surface adjustment of large reflector antennas. This adjustment method is applied to an 8 m reflector antenna,in which we only consider gravity deformation. The results show that this method is more efficient in adjusting the surface and improving the working performance.

Thermal Distortion Compensation for Improving Electrical Performance of Reflector Antennas

Aiming at the problem of the surface accuracy and electrical performance of the antenna in space environment are reduced due to thermal deformation caused by temperature load. This paper presents a method to compensate the thermally induced shape distortion of antenna reflector by actively adjusting actuators in order to improve the electrical performance. The adjustment of each actuator is related to the local deformation of the panel. Then, taking a space deployable antenna with a diameter of 5 meters as an example, the finite element model is established. According to the range of the temperature variation in space (−180°C - 200°C), different temperature loads are applied to the antenna. The variation of electrical properties and surface accuracy is analyzed and the worst working condition is determined, and the antenna is compensated based on this condition. Then, four different electrical performance parameters are used as the optimization objectives, and the electromechanical coupling optimization model is established, and the PSO algorithm is used to optimize the actuators adjustments. The results show that the method can effectively improve the electrical performance of the deformed reflector antenna.

Analysis and Design of a New Shaped Spherical Reflector Antenna with a Horn Feed

A design method of a new shaped spherical reflector antenna with a horn feed for wide-angle scanning is presented,in which the horn's phase center need not be found out and its optimal position can be determined.It is found from numerical calculation that the shaped spherical reflector antenna has better electrical performance than that of the spherical reflector antenna,at the maximum gain value under the conditions of the same feed and reflector aperture,and can be used as a wide angle searching antenna.

Electromagnetic performance analysis of reflectorantennas with non-uniform errors along radius

Based on the works of Greve and Rahmat-Samii, theelectromagnetic （EM） performance of the reflector antenna withnon-uniform surface errors along radius is further addressed. Amathematical model is developed to describe the weighting functionfor the non-uniform surface errors along radius. Then, somediscussions on the peak gain loss （PGL） and the first sidelobelevel increase （SLLI） caused by the non-uniform surface errors arepresented and several significant radiation characteristics of thereflector with non-uniform errors are pointed out. Last, based onthe proposed model, the weighted root mean square （RMS） valueof the surface errors is produced to evaluate the EM performanceand several representative cases with different non-uniform errorsare presented with good results. Results show that the weightedRMS value should be taken into account for a better quality evaluationof the reflector surface.

Radiation Characteristics of the Reflector Antenna with Random Perforated Holes

The radiation characteristics of a doubly curved shaped reflector antenna with random holes is analyzed by physical optics (PO) method, and the probability model of the random holes and its numerical realization method are presented. The radiation patterns show that in the azimuth plane the peak sidelobe level becomes much higher as the reflector surface with random holes. The simulation results can provide a theoretical guidance for the radar attackers.

Numerical Techniques Used in Modeling Codes for Dual-Reflector Antenna Design and Analysis

An user-oriented computer software consisting of three modeling codes, named DRAD, DRAA and FDPAT, is introduced. It can be used to design three types of Cassegrain system: classical, with shaped subreflector and with dual shaped reflectors, and to analyse radiation patterns for the antennas. Several mathematical models and numerical techniques are presented.

The Design of an Elliptical Reflector in the Gaussian-like Antenna Used in HT-7 ECRH System

The structure of the antenna which will be used in HT-7 tokamak electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) experiment and the design of its key component (the elliptical reflector) were introduced. A quasi-Gaussian TE11 wave sent from the TE01-TE11 mode converter was reflected by two mirrors from the waveguide aperture to the plasma center area. One of the two mirrors is a plane mirror and the other is an elliptical mirror. In this process, the wave beam will be converged by the two reflecting mirrors and the emissive direction of the wave is also controlled by them. As requested physically for ECRH experiment, the arrangement of the two mirrors can ensure the wave to be launched from the low-field side of the tour.

Gradient-based optimization method for producing a contoured beam with single-fed reflector antenna

A gradient-based optimization method for producing a contoured beam by using a single-fed reflector antenna is presented. First, a quick and accurate pattern approximation formula based on physical optics(PO) is adopted to calculate the gradients of the directivity with respect to reflector's nodal displacements. Because the approximation formula is a linear function of nodal displacements, the gradient can be easily derived. Then, the method of the steepest descent is adopted, and an optimization iteration procedure is proposed. The iteration procedure includes two loops: an inner loop and an outer loop. In the inner loop, the gradient and pattern are calculated by matrix operation, which is very fast by using the pre-calculated data in the outer loop. In the outer loop, the ideal terms used in the inner loop to calculate the gradient and pattern are updated, and the real pattern is calculated by the PO method. Due to the high approximation accuracy, when the outer loop is performed once, the inner loop can be performed many times, which will save much time because the integration is replaced by matrix operation. In the end, a contoured beam covering the continental United States(CONUS) is designed, and simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

高功率激光辐照下光学天线的像质研究

离轴两反光学天线在高功率激光系统中起到改变光束直径的作用,而高功率激光加载下所产生的热效应使光学天线的像质劣化,严重影响高功率激光系统的性能。为量化其影响效果,建立了离轴两反光学天线的有限元分析模型,模拟高功率激光作用环境,完成了激光加载下的瞬态热分析以及静力学分析,并得到离轴两反光学天线激光加载时间对波前劣化的影响关系。使用齐次坐标变换的方法求解离轴主次镜的刚体位移,具体分析了各项刚体位移随加载时间的变化情况。通过Zernike多项式拟合的方法完成了镜面的波面拟合,将拟合结果导入ZEMAX中,最终得到了该光学天线在平均功率为1 000 W,重频为0.2 Hz,入光直径为30 mm的激光加载300 s下的波前均方差为0.064 6λ。为了进一步验证模型的准确性,使用较低功率(10 W)激光进行原理等效实验,结果表明光学天线在激光加载下实际波像差与模型仿真结果基本相符,偏差小于7.93%,该方法可以有效评价离轴两反天线在高功率激光加载下的像质劣化情况。

环境风载荷下大口径反射面天线波束指向分析

大口径反射面天线是深空探测、卫星通信的关键设备。为了不断提高观测性能,天线口径不断增大,进而对天线指向精度的要求越来越高。随着天线口径的增大,天线的刚度降低、迎风面积增大,这会导致天线的柔性变形严重,性能难以保证。为探究环境风载荷下大口径反射面天线的柔性变形对电性能的影响,提出了一种天线波束指向分析模型。首先,利用计算流体力学方法对天线表面的风压分布情况进行了数值模拟,得到了天线表面的风压系数。然后,利用风压系数与风速无关的特性,分析了不同风速工况下天线结构变形的规律。最后,根据天线结构变形的特点,分析了天线在不同工作状态下的增益损失、指向偏差等的变化规律。结果表明,所提出的模型可以快速评估大口径反射面天线在风载荷下的变形情况和波束指向特性,这为后续的天线抗风结构设计与系统控制研究提供了理论指导。

基于力密度的径向肋式索膜反射面天线形态设计

针对空间索膜结构的初始形态设计问题,提出基于力密度方法和控制索网网格面积大小的方法来对边界拉索张力设计和索网形状设计的天线找形迭代策略。首先将薄膜反射面离散为三角形膜单元,得到膜单元的等效力密度,结合索网结构特点,得到索网和薄膜的静力平衡方程。保证索网所有内部索段的张力相等,同时通过控制网格面积大小实现边界索段张力设计。对前索网形状进行设计,根据前索网的抛物面方程,更新前索网自由节点坐标,进而重新调整竖向索张力,同时控制网格面积大小,通过优化迭代过程,实现天线的形态设计。通过径向肋式索膜反射面天线算例表明,该方法能够得到满足形状和张力分布的设计结果。

赋形反射面天线的约束多目标优化设计研究

赋形反射面天线通常使用单目标优化算法进行设计,当期望波束特性具有多个相互冲突的目标和约束限制时,将无法确保输出最优解.为此,提出了该类天线的约束多目标优化方法 .基于有希望区域优化和自适应约束位移密度估计的思想,设计一种新型双种群协同进化约束多目标优化算法DPBE,在基准测试套件与其他3种主流算法的对比表明,该算法具备更强的全局寻优性与稳定性.将该算法应用于19~21 GHz单偏置抛物反射面天线的平顶波束赋形中,并与单目标优化算法IWO和多目标优化算法NSGA-II-DE在同型初始天线的不同优化模型下进行了性能对比,发现所提方法能在单次运行中满足所有约束条件并取得最佳结果 .

混合面板反射面天线促动器布局与结构优化设计

文中针对大型主动主反射面天线在满足工程精度要求时存在形面精度冗余和成本高昂的问题,提出一种主动面板和非主动面板混合安装的反射面天线设计思想。首先,基于反射面变形区间安装主动面板和非主动面板,分析混合面板反射面天线的形面调控策略;然后,分别以天线质量为约束、以天线形面精度为目标以及以天线形面精度为约束、以天线质量为目标进行天线结构优化设计。结果,某35m反射面天线在满足精度要求的情况下背架结构质量下降了20.4%,在满足背架结构质量要求的情况下形面精度提升了18.7%。这充分证明了该设计思想在大口径、高精度反射面天线设计中的可行性和有效性。

Ku/Ka/W三频段单馈源反射面天线设计

为了简化多频段反射面天线的整体结构与体积,设计一个结构简单的三频段馈源,采用单腔体的形式而非复杂的共轴嵌套式或填充介质等方法,以此来精简整个馈源的设计与加工。为了在Ku/Ka两个相近低频段获得较好的隔离度,分别设计了两个低通的三阶滤波器。使用ANSYS HFSS电磁仿真软件进行Ku/Ka/W三频段单馈源反射面天线设计和优化分析。实际测量时,馈源三个端口的S参数采用矢量网络分析仪测得,馈源及反射面天线系统的增益则在暗室中测量得到。天线仿真设计和实测结果表明,在Ku/Ka/W三个常用频段,即14.5~15.5 GHz、34.5~35.5 GHz及93~95 GHz频率范围内,天线的电压驻波比均小于1.3,各个端口隔离度优于40 dB,具有代表性的三个中心频率点14.5 GHz、35 GHz、94 GHz的天线增益分别为30.5 dBi、34.6 dBi和39.7 dBi,交叉极化优于-23.9 dB,旁瓣电平优于-21.6 dB。所设计的反射面天线实现了频段跨度接近6.5∶1的Ku/Ka/W三频段特性。