Micromechanical modeling of deployment and shape recovery of thin-walled viscoelastic composite space structures

The first part of the paper presents an experimental study of the deployment and shape recovery of composite tape-springs after stowage at an elevated temperature. It is found that tape-springs deploy quickly and with a slight overshoot, but complete recovery takes place asymptotically over time. Stowage has the effect of slowing down both the shortterm deployment and long-term shape recovery. The second part of the paper presents a micromechanical finite element homogenization scheme to determine the effective viscoelastic properties of woven composite laminas. This solution scheme is employed in numerical simulations of deployment and shape recovery of composite tape-springs. The proposed micromechanical model predicts both the short-term deployment and long-term shape recovery response with close agreement to the experimental measurements

Micromechanical modeling of deployment and shape recovery of thin-walled viscoelastic composite space structures

The first part of the paper presents an experimental study of the deployment and shape recovery of composite tape-springs after stowage at an elevated temperature. It is found that tape-springs deploy quickly and with a slight overshoot, but complete recovery takes place asymptotically over time. Stowage has the effect of slowing down both the shortterm deployment and long-term shape recovery. The second part of the paper presents a micromechanical finite element homogenization scheme to determine the effective viscoelastic properties of woven composite laminas. This solution scheme is employed in numerical simulations of deployment and shape recovery of composite tape-springs. The proposed micromechanical model predicts both the short-term deployment and long-term shape recovery response with close agreement to the experimental measurements

On the effect of prestress on the bistable behaviour of tape-springs

The effect of bending prestress on the bistable behaviour of a tape-spring is investigated by specifying a thermal gradient through its thickness, in order to simulate residual bending. It is shown that the magnitude of the self-stress state which arises influences the bistability characteristics of the prestressed tape-spring

On the behaviour of corrugated plates in bending

A numerical analysis on the bending behaviour of thin shell, corrugated plates is presented in this study. A finite element analysis is performed to investigate the effect of initial geometry upon the salient features of the moment-rotation response

KT Monograph Fig. C 3 3

H20: Phase V

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H20: Phase Ve lat

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P97/88 (H20 Level Vf4, Rm 53; see Fig. C3:10 for location