Manufacture and Experimental Analysis of a Concentrated Strain Based Deployable Truss Structure
Abstract
A truss structure was built and tested to advance deployable structures technology based on the concentrated strain approach. In 3rd order hierarchy systems, this architecture has the potential to provide a 10 fold improvement in mass efficiency, and demonstrate a linear compaction ratio that is five times better than current technology. A 101.6 cm x 12.7 cm x 12.7 cm test article was fabricated, and a buckling test and analysis was performed. The total mass of the deployable truss structure was 28 grams. This structure was constructed of piecewise constant cross section elements. One of the components consisted of high modulus pull-truded carbon fiber rods (CFRs) for the majority of the length. The other components were compliant flexure joints made of Nitinol NiTi, a shape memory alloy (SMA) capable of a repeatable superelastic strain of 5.0% at either boundary. The results of this research provide a contribution to the deployable structures science by improving the compaction ratio and the mass efficiency of deployable structures without decreasing the truss performance limits.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA453559
Entities
People
- Eric L. Pollard
- Juan M. Mejia-ariza
- Thomas W. Murphey
Organizations
- Virginia Tech