2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Research on the Design, Controlled Deployment and Rigidizing of the Space Inflatable Structure
| Project/Area Number |
16360427
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Aerospace engineering
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Kanazawa Institute of Technology |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
KUBOMURA Kenji Kanazawa Institute of Technology, College of Engineering, Professor, 工学部, 教授 (70308576)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
OBATA Masakazu Kanazawa Institute of Technology, College of Engineering, Professor, 工学部, 教授 (00298316)
IIJIMA Takashi Nippon Steel Corporation, Advanced Research Laboratory, Senior Researcher, 先端技術研究所, 主幹研究員 (50373759)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
|
| Keywords | Space Structure / Inflatable Structure / Controlled Deployment / Rigidizing / Fiber reinforced Composite / Space antenna |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The aim of this three years project was to propose a space experiment for the construction of the space inflatable structure, in which a model inflatable structure was folded in the atmospheric pressure, lifted to the space, inflated to the predetermined dimensions and the shape was rgidized by the heat curing the constituting CFRP prepregs. During the first year of research, necessary data was obtained for designing the apparatus in the heat curing experiment by building the inflatable structure with a 2 meter diameter ring. In the second year the 2 meter ring inflatable model was again built and the inflation control of the model was evaluated. In the last year, the inflation control, inflated dimensions and heat curing characteristics were investigated, and then the potential of constructing the large inflatable structure was investigated.
In the inflating process, first, the four struts was inflated when the internal gas pressure reached the wire tension, and then the ring section was inflated by snapping the springs installed in each ring segment. Though, glass wool was used for heat insulator which is thicker than those to be used in the space, the model was successfully rigidized by curing the CFRP prepregs. It is evaluated that the construction of the space inflatable structure by the present method is feasible, however, the possible large dimension of the present method space inflatable could be limited to less than 100 meter diameter ring structure.
|
Research Products
(4 results)
