Experimental Development of Self-Deployable Structures

Abstract

Deployable space structures are prefabricated structures which can be transformed from a closed, compact configuration to a predetermined expanded form in which they are stable and can bear loads. The present research effort investigates a new family of deployable structures, called self-deployable structures. Unlike other deployable structures, which have rigid members and moving joints, the self-deployable members are flexible while the connecting joints are rigid. The joints store the predefined geometry of the deployed structure in the collapsed state. The self-deployable structure is stress-free in both deployed and collapsed configurations and results in a self-standing structure which acquires its structural properties after a chemical reaction. Reliability of deployment is one of the most important features of the self-deployable structure, since it does not rely on mechanisms that can lock during deployment. The unit building block of these structures is the self-deployable structural element. Several of these elements can be linked to generate more complex building blocks such as a triangular or tetrahedral structures. Different self-deployable structural element and self-deployable structure concepts are investigated in the present research work, and the performance of triangular and tetrahedral prototype structures are experimentally explored.