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Modelling centrifugal membrane deployment of solar sails with the discrete element method

  • Zixuan Xu
  • , Daxu Zhang*
  • , Wujun Chen
  • , Fujun Peng
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Spin-stabilized solar sails have been extensively studied in recent years. In this paper, a DEM-based approach is proposed for dynamic analysis of the centrifugal deployment of solar sails. In order to validate the proposed approach, the deployment of a small-scale solar sail similar to "IKAROS" is studied. The membrane is discretised into a number of particles, with no physical contact between them. Non-contact interaction is introduced to model in-plane stiffness of the membrane. In order to improve the accuracy, additional forces are applied to the mass particles to model buckling strength, crease stiffness, air drag and damping. The predicted results of the membrane deployment are compared with the experimental data and numerical results in the literature.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 4th International Conference on Particle-Based Methods - Fundamentals and Applications, PARTICLES 2015
EditorsEugenio Onate, D.R.J. Owen, T. Zohdi, M. Bischoff, P. Wriggers
PublisherInternational Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering
Pages602-611
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9788494424472
StatePublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event4th International Conference on Particle-Based Methods, PARTICLES 2015 - Barcelona, Spain
Duration: 28 Sep 201530 Sep 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 4th International Conference on Particle-Based Methods - Fundamentals and Applications, PARTICLES 2015

Conference

Conference4th International Conference on Particle-Based Methods, PARTICLES 2015
Country/TerritorySpain
CityBarcelona
Period28/09/1530/09/15

Keywords

  • DEM
  • Membrane deployment
  • Solar sail

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