DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF INFLATABLE PARABOLIC SHELLS

Abstract

With the increase in the space shuttle cost the smaller, lighter and flexible satellites gained the attention of scientists. This can be achieved by the use of membrane like sheets. Inflated structures have attracted much interest in the space community due to their unique advantages in achieving low mass and high packaging efficiency. Because of the extremely flexible nature of the structure, it is susceptible to the vibration so an understanding of the static and dynamic analysis of the inflatable structures component is needed to predict the overall response of the structure. Vibration reduction of any particular component results in reducing the overall vibration of the inflatable structure. So this dissertation deals with the study of dynamic analysis of parabolic reflector shells. As the reflector is subjected with the unknown forces whose point and direction of application is unknown therefore harmonic analysis is done in x as well as z direction. Also the effect of inflation pressure and shape of the parabolas are studied. Gravity can also cause the differences so the effect of gravity is also studied. By obtaining the dynamic response characteristics of the parabolic reflector shells, a suitable control technique may be developed to effectively control the structural vibration