Design and simulation of a closed-loop deployable structure

A closed-loop deployable structure has potential applications for ultra-lightweight solar arrays, solar sails, and radar structures. We firstly proposed a reasonable structure of this kind of structure in order to build up a feasible deployable paraboloid antenna with a diameter of 3 m for a good packaging ratio. Then dynamic simulations of the deploying processes with two typical working conditions are presented, which reveals that our design is feasible. Next the detailed structures of our design are given out. The stowed diameter of the structure is 0.09 m and the mass of it is 0.6 Kg. With a packaging ratio to be 0.03 and an ultra-lightweight mass, such a structure has a great potential to be used in a huge deployable mesh antenna.