Review of Large Spacecraft Deployable Membrane Antenna Structures

The demand for large antennas in future space missions has increasingly stimulated the development of deployable membrane antenna structures owing to their light weight and small stowage volume. However, there is little literature providing a comprehensive review and comparison of different membrane antenna structures. Space-borne membrane antenna structures are mainly classified as either parabolic or planar membrane antenna structures. For parabolic membrane antenna structures, there are five deploying and forming methods, including inflation, inflation-rigidization, elastic ribs driven, Shape Memory Polymer （SMP）-inflation, and electrostatic form- ing. The development and detailed comparison of these five methods are presented. Then, properties of membrane materials （including polyester film and polyimide film） for parabolic membrane antennas are compared. Additionally, for planar membrane antenna structures, frame shapes have changed from circular to rectangular, and different ten- sioning systems have emerged successively, including single Miura-Natori, double, and multi-layer tensioning systems. Recent advances in structural configurations, tensioning system design, and dynamic analysis for planar membrane antenna structures are investigated. Finally, future trends for large space membrane antenna structures are pointed out and technical problems are proposed, including design and analysis of membrane structures,materials and processes, membrane packing, surface accuracy stability, and test and verification technology. Through a review of large deployable membrane antenna structures, guidance for space membrane-antenna research and applications is provided.

Study on Clutter Model and Characteristics of Airborne Radar with Parabolic Conformal Phased Array

The studies on clutter modeling and suppression of airborne radar with a parabolic conformal array are uncommon due to the complexity of this type of antenna array configuration.The correct understanding of clutter characteristics for airborne radar with a parabolic conformal antenna array is the prerequisite and foundation of optimal suppression of this type of clutter.This paper establishes the model of clutter echo of airborne parabolic conformal phased array radar and analyzes the structure characteristics and the distribution features of this type of clutter.The simulation results show that this type of clutter has the following characteristics：1） The main lobe on the azimuth is seriously broadened,2） the power spectrum presents strong heterogeneity,and 3） the freedom degrees are high.Based on the existing related clutter suppression methods,we verified the correctness of the constructed clutter model.This work has an important guidance to further study on clutter suppression methods in airborne parabolic conformal array radar.

Thermal deformation analysis of the composite material satellite antenna

Controlling the thermal deformation is a crucial index for the design of the satellite antenna. To calculate and measure the satellite antenna’s thermal deformation is also an important step for the design of satellite antenna. Based on the foundation of equivalent assumption, the thermal deformation of the parabolic satellite antenna was analyzed by the finite element method for different design project. The best design project that had the minimum of the thermal deformation could be obtained through changing the lay-angle, lay-layers and lay-thickness of each layer. Results show the asymmetry structure has the minimum of thermal deformation. This paper may provide useful information for the further investigation on the coupling of thermal-stress structure.

Compound parabolic concentrator applied as receiving antenna in scattering optical communication

The two-dimensional（2D） compound parabolic concentrator＇s（CPC） characteristics are analyzed.It is shown that CPC＇s height is taller and its light collecting ability is stronger with the CPC＇s field of view decreasing when the bottom radius is unchanged.According to the ZEMAX analysis,CPC is good at collecting optical signal,and the antenna combining CPC with hemispherical lens can gather more optical signal than a single CPC or CPCs combined in series.The light propagation of scattering optical communication based on multiple scattering is simulated by Monte Carlo method,and the results show that using CPC as receiving antenna can strengthen communication system＇s signal collecting ability and increase its communication distance.

Design and analysis of bidirectional deployable parabolic cylindrical antenna

A bidirectional deployable parabolic cylindrical reflector for an L-band synthetic aperture radar is presented in this study, in which a self-deployed antenna with low weight was designed. The antenna consists of four curved surfaces formed from thin sheets of composite materials connected by hinges along the edges, and the reflective surface is provided by the front surface. The edge profiles of connecting lines were obtained through geometric analysis. A scaled model, including design and manufac- ture, was demonstrated to validate the process from the folded state to the fully deployed state. The non-contact synchronous vision measuring method was used to test the basic frequency of the scaled model, and the test results gave the verification of the analyses. Compared with the existing unidirectional deployable antenna, this new type of bidirectional deployable antenna can be applied to larger-size antennas and has better performance because the glass-woven tape connections were substituted with more reliable hinges. Static, modal, harmonic response, and transient response analyses of the full-sized reflector structure were mod- eled with the commercial finite element （FE） package ABAQUS. The modeling techniques were developed to predict the struc- tural dynamic behavior of the reflector and the results showed that the first natural frequency was 0.865 Hz, and the reflector structure had good stiffness in three directions. This proposed structure has very high stiffness-to-mass ratio because of its hollow solid construction. A preliminary simulation of radiation properties of the parabolic cylindrical antenna, fed by an off-set linear feed horn array, was conducted to obtain the radiation pattern of the feed and the reflector.