Design and optimization of the CFRP mirror components

Abstract

As carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) material has been developed and demonstrated as an effective material in lightweight telescope reflector manufacturing recently, the authors of this article have extended to apply this material on the lightweight space camera mirror design and fabrication. By CFRP composite laminate design and optimization using finite element method (FEM) analysis, a spherical mirror with φ316 mm diameter whose core cell reinforcement is an isogrid configuration is fabricated. Compared with traditional ways of applying ultra-low-expansion glass (ULE) on the CFRP mirror surface, the method of nickel electroplating on the surface effectively reduces the processing cost and difficulty of the CFRP mirror. Through the FEM analysis, the first order resonance frequency of the CFRP mirror components reaches up to 652.3 Hz. Under gravity affection coupling with +5°C temperature rising, the mirror surface shape root-mean-square values (RMS) at the optical axis horizontal state is 5.74 nm, which meets mechanical and optical requirements of the mirror components on space camera.

Keywords

Pure-CFRP mirror / lay-up design / bipod / integrated optimization

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