Session: 01-01-02: General Topics of Aerospace Structures

Paper Number: 110658

110658 - Mechanical Model of Tomoe-Type Kirigami Structure Avoiding Creases in Flexible Printed Wiring on a Deployable Membrane 

Starshade, which is one of the deployable membrane structures, has sensors and actuators on the membrane to maintain its shape. Therefore, flexible printed wiring is attached to the entire membrane. However, since the membrane is folded and stored during launch, there is a risk that the flexible printed wiring will break at the crease with a small radius of curvature. Therefore, a structure that straddles the crease is necessary. The authors adopt Tomoe-type kirigami structure for that purpose. The Tomoe-type kirigami is a structure in which characteristic cuts are made on a plane. When the membrane is flat-planed, the Tomoe-type kirigami is also flat-planed and has no distortion. When the membrane is folded, the Tomoe-type kirigami structure transforms into a triangular shape with three large bent beams. Compared to the radius of curvature of folds, the radius of curvature of bending of the Tomoe-type kirigami structure is very large. Therefore, the wiring will not break. However, when the Tomoe-shaped kirigami structure is deformed from its planar shape, a restoring force acts against the deflection and applies an out-of-plane load to the base film. Since the starshade requires high accuracy of shape determination, and since multiple Tomoe-type kirigami structures are arranged on the entire membrane, it is necessary to estimate the external force applied to the base membrane by Tomoe-type kirigami structure. Therefore, in this presentation, we proposed a mechanical model of the Tomoe-shaped kirigami structure, and made it possible to estimate the external force by calculation. The validity of the proposed mechanical model was verified by shape measurement experiments, and it was confirmed that the mechanical model and the experimental results were in good agreement.

Presenting Author: Shoko Arita Shizuoka University

Presenting Author Biography: Shoko Arita received a Ph.D. in Engineering from Nihon University in 2016. She is currently with the Shizuoka University. She study structural dynamics of the deployable membranes of spacecraft and spacecraft systems using the membrane structure.

Authors:

Shoko Arita Shizuoka University
Momonari Doi Shizuoka University
Yasuyuki Miyazaki Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency