Dynamic Characteristics of Inflatable Reflectors with Consideration of Assembly of Gores

This paper focuses on the dynamic characteristics of reflectors considering the effects of assembly of gores. A model is established to properly predict the assembled shape of planar gores, and nonlinear finite element method and subspace iteration method are adopted to analyze the dynamic characteristics of reflectors. A comparative study is carried out based on the dynamic analysis with ideal reflector and assembled reflector to illustrate the impacts of assembly on mode shapes and natural frequencies of the reflectors. The results show that the presence of assembly of gores and seaming tapes has significant effects on mode shapes and natural frequencies of reflectors, which will influence the shape control of reflectors.