Design Optimization Method for Additive Manufacturing of the Primary Mirror of a Large-Aperture Space Telescope
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 30, Issue 3
Abstract
The lightweight design of the sandwich mirror, as a commonly used space primary mirror structure, is one of the key topics for the design of space-based optomechanical systems. Owing to the limitation of traditional manufacturing capabilities, the induced holes on the mirror back are usually of the open or half-open form, which compresses the optimization design space. With rapid development of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, it is possible to fabricate a closed-back sandwich mirror with a complex internal structure to achieve outstanding performance. In this paper, a novel topology optimization model for a closed-back primary mirror of a large-aperture space telescope is proposed. First, extrusion constraints are considered in the optimization model to obtain the layout design of stiffening webs inside the mirror core. Then, a simply connected constraint, as one type of constraint in AM, is considered to avoid enclosed voids in the structures. Through solving the proposed model, a new closed-back sandwich mirror configuration with nonclosed treelike vertical stiffening webs, is achieved. In addition, the thicknesses of the internal stiffening webs are optimized for minimizing the weight with the constraint of the surface shape error of the mirror face. Compared with the classical and existing sandwich mirror configurations, the optimized mirror has significant superiorities on optical performance and the lightweight ratio, which illustrates the effectiveness of the presented method. The method is a prospective study in the design of a space mirror fabricated using AM.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11332004 and 11402046), the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB013201), the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (111 program) (B14013), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (DUT15ZD101). This financial support is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 30 • Issue 3 • May 2017
Copyright
©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 29, 2016
Accepted: Jul 27, 2016
Published online: Oct 27, 2016
Discussion open until: Mar 27, 2017
Published in print: May 1, 2017
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