Research On Gas-Solid Interaction Problem In The Inflatable Deployment Process Of Space Folded Membrane Boom

Increasing people focus on space inflatable deployment structures recently, which can offer inherent low packing volume, extremely low-mass and on-orbit deployment reliability, and they have extensive prospect in the space field. In this paper, space folded membrane booms are basic components for space inflatable structures. In view of their dynamics in the inflatable deployment process, the international advances of last twenty years have been summarized which including the inflatable deployment models, the finite element simulations and inflatable deployment experiments. But the research around the world is not mature enough for the complex gas-solid interaction problem existed in the space folded membrane booms during the inflatable deployment.Considering the nonlinear gas-solid interaction which is existed in the space folded membrane booms between nonstationary, compressible gas and flexible boom wall during the inflatable deployment process, the arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) method is introduced in this paper to describe the continuity equation and motion equation of compressible fluid. Gas-solid interaction dynamic model of space folded membrane booms in the inflatable deployment is established. Operator-split methodology is applied combining with explicit central difference algorithm to solve the problem of gas-solid interaction with interface of large displacement and small strain. The change of velocity field and pressure field of membrane booms during inflatable deployment is analyzed for V-folded membrane booms. The effects of inflation rate and folding angle on pressure delay are discussed. The pressure result is compared with segmented inflation control volume model. The result indicates that the control volume model has larger error, and the gas-solid interaction model is more suitable to study the deployment dynamic properties of membrane booms.An inflation deployment experimental system in equivalent micro gravity environment is established based on air track which resolves the effect of gravity-caused friction. Non-contact photoelectricity measurement effectively avoids the disturbance of contact sensor to the inflation deployment process. The effectes of different inflation flows, variant geometry dimensions and loading/unloading on deployable end on dynamic properties are researched. Inflation flow, diameter, and payload mass are chosen as main parameters by the experiment. Inflation deployment process is analyzed by dimension theory, and analysis of experimental error is carried out. The experimental results show that the gas-solid interaction of the folded membrane boom during inflatable deployment is effective by ALE finite element method. This can offer gist to predict the deployment dynamics of space inflatable deployment structure.For Velcro-controlled deployment process of rolled booms, resistance moment induced by Velcro is introduced using the theory of rigid motion of the plane to research the deployment dynamic properity of the rolled boom with and without Velcro. Then considering the wrinkle of membrane boom at the rolled state, the gas-solid interaction of the Velcro-controlled rolled boom is analyzed by ALE finite element method. Variation of the gas pressure inside boom, the deployment velocity, and the transverse vibrations are studied. Results show that gas-solid interaction analysis on the rolled boom is effective using the ALE finite element method. It is feasible that the rolled boom with some payload is reliably deployed using Velcro-controlled mode.