A Novel Contoured Beam Synthesis Method for AstroMesh Reflectors Based on Integrated Electromagnetic-Structural Design

The self-equilibrium characteristic of the tensioned AstroMesh reflector antennas leads to the result that the concave-convex reflector surface for contoured beams cannot be realized by AstroMesh reflector antennas. To realize the contoured beam synthesis for AstroMesh reflector antennas, a novel contoured beam synthesis technology based on integrated electromagnetic-structural design is presented, and the corresponding optimization model is established. In the model, with all the force densities being constrained to be positive, force densities of the AstroMesh reflector antennas are designed to realize the desired far-field pattern. Moreover, the tension uniformity of the AstroMesh reflector antenna is additionally chosen as an objective function to ensure that the shaped AstroMesh reflectors have excellent engineering practicability with good tension uniformity. Finally, a shaped AstroMesh reflector antenna is designed to produce a contoured beam covering the continental United States (CONUS), which verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.