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Thermal-Structural Analysis of Sunshield Membranes

Author
Parrish, Keith
Published
January 2003.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Additional Creators
Johnston, John
Online Version

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Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
Free-to-read Unrestricted online access
Summary
Future large infrared space telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will require deployable sunshields to provide passive cooling for optics and instruments. Deployable sunshield structures for such applications typically consist of multiple thin-film membrane layers supported by deployable booms. The mechanical design of the sunshield must accommodate thermal strains due to layer-to-layer temperature differences as well as potentially large in-plane temperature gradients within individual film layers. This paper describes a thermal-structural analysis for predicting the stress state in a thin-film membrane subject to both mechanical thermal loads that could aid in the mechanical design of future sunshield structures. First the temperature field predicted by a thermal analysis is mapped to a structural finite element model, and then the structural response is predicted using a nonlinear static analysis. The structural model uses membrane elements in conjunction with a tension field material model to predict the response of the thin-film membrane layer. The tension field material model accounts for no-compression behavior associated with wrinkling and slackness. This approach was used to study the problem of a single membrane layer from the NASA reference concept for the JWST sunshield. Results from the analysis show that the membrane can experience a loss of tensile preload due to the presence of an in-plane temperature gradient representative of the cold-side layer temperature distribution predicted for the reference concept JWST.
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 20030020805.
2003 AlAA Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference; 7-10 Apr. 2003; Norfolk, VA; United States.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
No Copyright.
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