Scholarlink

<p>Solar Arrays (SA’s) of a satellite are typically folded within the launcher. After the satellite is inserted into its orbit, SA’s are unfolded (or deployed) and locked. The deployment is a critical operation as its failure translates to catastrophic satellite mission failure. Therefore, the design of the SA Deployment Mechanism (DM) must be robust. The design must additionally ensure smooth deployment and gentle locking not to damage the SA’s nor the satellite structure. This work demonstrates designing a SADM having reasonable deployment speed yet smooth locking. This design is verified by simulation using transient Finite Element Analysis (FEA) employing implicit time-stepping scheme. Deployment large rotations, complex contacts and rapid locking, however, caused challenging convergence difficulties. This work demonstrates design, optimization, simulation and difficulties overcoming for a typical SADM. This also extends to any relatively slow mechanism.</p>

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Design and simulation of a solar array deployment mechanism for a small satellite using implicit time-stepping

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月17日

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  • George B. Saad,
  • Ahmed R. Desoki,
  • Mohamed Kassab

摘要

Solar Arrays (SA’s) of a satellite are typically folded within the launcher. After the satellite is inserted into its orbit, SA’s are unfolded (or deployed) and locked. The deployment is a critical operation as its failure translates to catastrophic satellite mission failure. Therefore, the design of the SA Deployment Mechanism (DM) must be robust. The design must additionally ensure smooth deployment and gentle locking not to damage the SA’s nor the satellite structure. This work demonstrates designing a SADM having reasonable deployment speed yet smooth locking. This design is verified by simulation using transient Finite Element Analysis (FEA) employing implicit time-stepping scheme. Deployment large rotations, complex contacts and rapid locking, however, caused challenging convergence difficulties. This work demonstrates design, optimization, simulation and difficulties overcoming for a typical SADM. This also extends to any relatively slow mechanism.