B. Rousselet

Hamad Hazim, B. Rousselet, Neil Ferguson

The mass reduction of satellite solar arrays results in significant panel flexibility, so possibly striking one another dynamically leading ultimately to structural damage. To prevent this, rubber snubbers are mounted at well chosen points of the structure and they act as one sided linear spring; as a negative consequence, the dynamic of these panels becomes nonlinear. The finite element approximation is used to solve partial differential equations governing the structural dynamic. The models are validated and adjusted with experiments done in the ISVR laboratory, Southampton university.

Hamad Hazim, B. Rousselet

Solar arrays are structures which are connected to satellites; during launch, they are in a folded position and submitted to high vibrations. In order to save mass, the flexibility of the panels is not negligible and they may strike each other; this may damage the structure. To prevent this, rubber snubbers are mounted at well chosen points of the structure; a prestress is applied to the snubber; but it is quite difficult to check the amount of prestress and the snubber may act only on one side; they will be modeled as one sided springs (see figure 2). In this article, some analysis for responses (displacements) in both time and frequency domains for a clamped-clamped Euler-Bernoulli beam model with a spring are presented. This spring can be unilateral or bilateral fixed at a point. The mounting (beam +spring) is fixed on a rigid support which has a sinusoidal motion of constant frequency. The system is also studied in the frequency domain by sweeping frequencies between two fixed values, in order to save the maximum of displacements corresponding to each frequency. Numerical results are compared with exact solutions in particular cases which already exist in the literature. On the other hand, a numerical and theoretical investigation of nonlinear normal mode (NNM) can be a new method to describe nonlinear behaviors, this work is in progress.

Hamad Hazim, B. Rousselet

In order to save mass of satellite solar arrays, the flexibility of the panels becomes not negligible and they may strike each other; this may damage the structure. To prevent this, rubber snubbers are mounted at well chosen points of the structure and they act as one sided linear spring; as a negative consequence, the dynamic of these panels becomes nonlinear. The finite element approximation is used to solve partial differential equations governing the structural dynamic. Frequency sweep has been performed numerically to study the dynamic behavior. Non linear normal modes are under study