CN103354303B - Expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses an expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna, and mainly solves problems of large storage volume and low surface precision in the prior art. The expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna is composed of an expansion mechanism (1), a mesh surface supporting mechanism (2), flexible cables (3) and a wire mesh (4). The mesh surface supporting mechanism (2) is symmetrically installed on both sides of the expansion mechanism (1). The flexible cables (3) are interlaced on the mesh surface supporting mechanism. The wire mesh (4) is disposed on the flexible cables (3). During folding up, the expansion mechanism is retracted along a straight line; the mesh surface supporting mechanism is folded up and retracted on both sides of the expansion mechanism; and the flexible cables and the wire mesh are retracted in remaining space of the mesh surface supporting mechanism. During expansion, the expansion mechanism is expanded along a straight line; the mesh surface supporting mechanism is stretched towards both sides of the expansion mechanism (1); and the flexible cables tighten and support the wire mesh (4) so as to form a parabolic cylindrical surface. The expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna has the advantages of small storage volume and high surface precision, and can be used for searching targets in the air and measuring target azimuths.

Description

Deployable Mesh Parabolic Antenna

technical field

The invention belongs to the technical field of satellite antennas, in particular to an expandable mesh parabolic cylindrical antenna, which can be used for searching targets in the air and measuring the azimuth angle of targets.

Background technique

In the fields of satellite communication, wireless broadcasting system, earth observation, land remote sensing, deep space exploration and deep space communication in the future, satellite antenna is one of the essential key equipment. In order to meet the needs of multi-function, multi-band, large capacity, high power, and long life, satellite antennas inevitably tend to be larger in diameter. However, in order to compress transportation space and reduce transmission costs, satellite antennas need to be foldable .

Traditional parabolic reflector antennas are composed of metal or metallized parabolic reflective surfaces and are supported by supporting components. The overall size and mass of the structure are large, and it is not suitable for direct application to satellite antennas. Most of the parabolic reflector antennas in the unfolded form are inflatable or expandable solid surface. Among them, the inflatable antenna adopts the form of inflatable air to expand the structure in place, and the expandable solid surface type uses shape memory polymer material as the expansion drive. Although these two structures reduce the storage volume, they have the same disadvantage, that is, the surface accuracy is generally not as good as Mesh deployable reflector antenna, meanwhile, the stability of the inflatable antenna is not as good as the mesh deployable reflector antenna.

The mesh deployable reflector antenna structure mainly has the following two forms:

One is similar to an umbrella-shaped structure, which is mostly suitable for structures that are rotationally formed by reflective surfaces, such as parabolic antennas, but not suitable for structures that are stretch-formed by reflective surfaces, such as cylindrical antennas.

The other is an expandable truss structure, which utilizes a large number of expandable truss units connected by hinges to form a supporting frame, and then lays metal mesh on the supporting frame. The deployable truss structure can be deployed in one direction or in a ring. This structure can only provide one degree of freedom of the parabolic antenna, that is, the overall one-way expansion. This single degree of freedom form cannot form a parabolic cylinder.

Contents of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the above-mentioned prior art, and propose a deployable mesh parabolic cylindrical antenna, so as to improve the profile precision of the antenna and reduce the folded volume of the antenna.

The technical concept of realizing the purpose of the present invention is: combining the umbrella structure in the mesh expandable antenna structure with the expandable truss unit structure, that is, using the hinged rib expansion structure in the umbrella structure to realize the unfolding of the mesh surface, and adopting the expandable The truss structure realizes the deployment of the antenna. The whole antenna consists of:

The unfolding mechanism, the mesh support mechanism, the cable, the wire mesh, the wire mesh is fixed on the cable, and it is characterized in that:

The deployment mechanism adopts a one-dimensional deployment truss to realize the folding and deployment of the antenna;

The mesh surface support mechanism includes m hinged rib expansion units, and these hinged rib expansion units are symmetrically installed on both sides of the expansion mechanism to form a skeleton supporting the wire mesh, m≥4;

The flexible cables are staggeredly arranged on the mesh surface support mechanism, and assist the wire mesh to form the required parabolic cylinder shape.

The above-mentioned expandable mesh parabolic antenna is characterized in that: the one-dimensional unfolded truss includes m unit long ribs, m unit short ribs, 2m-4 longitudinal connecting rods and 2m five-way joints;

Each longitudinal connecting rod includes a front longitudinal rod, a rear longitudinal rod and a synchronization joint, the front longitudinal rod and the rear longitudinal rod are connected through the synchronization joint, and the front longitudinal rod and the rear longitudinal rod rotate around the synchronization joint; each five-way joint , with connection points in five directions, that is, the lower side joint, the right side joint, the front side joint, the rear side joint, and the left side joint. , a front longitudinal bar and a connecting rib; every four five-way joints form a planar rectangular unit through two unit long ribs and two unit short ribs, and all planar rectangular units are connected by a longitudinal connecting bar, and the front longitudinal bar wraps around The rear joint of the five-way joint rotates, and the rear longitudinal rod rotates around the front joint to form a folding truss that can be folded and unfolded.

The above-mentioned expandable mesh parabolic antenna is characterized in that: each synchronous joint is composed of a cylindrical gear joint, a cylindrical gear joint and a splint, and the splint is fixed on both sides of the cylindrical gear joint and the cylindrical gear joint, so that the front longitudinal direction can be realized. Synchronous rotation of the rod with the rear longitudinal rod.

The above-mentioned expandable mesh parabolic antenna is characterized in that: there are truss driving torsion springs and truss limit blocks at the front and rear joints of each five-way joint, and the truss driving torsion springs provide a drive for the folding truss to unfold. Force, the truss limit block is used to limit the expansion range of the folded truss.

The above-mentioned expandable mesh parabolic antenna is characterized in that: the five-way joint adopts an integrated structure, and the lower side contact and the unit long rib, and the right side contact and the unit short rib are connected by shaft holes; the front side contact and the rear The longitudinal bar, the rear side joint and the front longitudinal bar, the left side joint and the connecting rib are all connected by pins.

The above-mentioned expandable mesh parabolic antenna is characterized in that: each hinged rib expansion unit includes a connecting rib, a hinged joint and a Y-shaped rib; the connecting rib and the Y-shaped rib are connected by a hinged joint, and around the hinged joint Rotation; the connecting rib is connected to the unfolded structure through the joint of the five-way joint at the same time, and the connecting rib rotates around the joint of the five-way joint;

The joint between the hinged joint and the connecting rib is provided with a hinged rib driving torsion spring and a hinged rib stopper, the hinged rib drive torsion spring provides a driving force for the expansion of the hinged rib expansion unit, and the hinged rib stopper is used to limit range of rotation;

The connection between the connecting rib and the five-way joint is provided with a connecting rib driving torsion spring and a connecting rib limiting block. The connecting rib driving torsion spring provides driving force for the expansion of the mesh support mechanism. The hinged rib limiting block Used to limit the rotation range of the mesh support mechanism;

There are some small holes on the Y-shaped ribs and the connecting ribs for binding flexible cables.

The above-mentioned deployable mesh parabolic antenna is characterized in that: the flexible cables include m supporting cables, n adjusting cables and n-2n/m+m-2 longitudinal supporting cables, where n is an integer multiple of m , and not 0; each support cable passes through the two ends of the Y-shaped rib successively from the five-way joint, and is tied to the hinge joint; each adjustment cable is connected between the support cable and the hinge rib expansion unit, and adjusts The connections between the cables and the supporting cables form several flexible cable connection points; each longitudinal support cable is connected between the corresponding flexible cable connection points on the adjacent hinged rib expansion units.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following advantages:

1. Since the present invention adopts the form of the hinged rib expansion unit and the one-dimensional expansion truss, both of them can be folded and expanded, and only occupy less space when folded. Compared with the solid surface parabolic cylindrical antenna of the same size, the storage volume is significant Reduced, the transmission cost is reduced.

2. Since the present invention adopts the form of mesh surface support structure and flexible cable structure, applying adjustment force to the support cable through the adjustment cable can make the support cable reach the ideal position, so that the reflective surface formed by the wire mesh fixed on the flexible cable can Achieve relatively high precision, compared with the same size inflatable antenna and expandable solid surface antenna, the profile accuracy is improved.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall expanded structure of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a one-dimensional unfolded truss structure in the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural view of the longitudinal connecting rod in the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the five-way joint connection relationship in the present invention;

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of the mesh support structure in the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of the connection relationship of the articulated joint in the present invention;

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of the overall collapse of the present invention.

detailed description

Below in conjunction with accompanying drawing, the present invention will be further described.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the present invention includes an unfolding mechanism 1 , a mesh support mechanism 2 , flexible cables 3 , and wire mesh 4 . Wherein: the mesh support mechanism 2 includes m hinged rib expansion units 21, m≥4, and m is an even number, m=8 is taken in this example, and these hinged rib expansion units 21 are symmetrically installed on both sides of the expansion mechanism 1; The cables 3 are staggeredly installed on the mesh support mechanism 2, and the wire mesh 4 is fixed on the flexible cables 3; the unfolding mechanism 1 adopts a one-dimensional unfolding truss, as shown in Fig. 2 .

Referring to FIG. 2 , the one-dimensional unfolded truss of the present invention includes m long ribs 11 , m short ribs 12 , 2m-4 longitudinal connecting rods 13 and 2m five-way joints 14 . Wherein: the structure of each longitudinal connecting rod 13 is shown in FIG. 3 , and the structure of each five-way joint 14 is shown in FIG. 4 .

As shown in FIG. 3 , the longitudinal connecting rod 13 includes a front longitudinal rod 131 , a rear longitudinal rod 132 and a synchronous joint 133 . The synchronous joint 133 is composed of a pair of left and right cylindrical gear joints and a splint 133c. The splint 133c is fixed on both sides of the left cylindrical gear joint 133a and the right cylindrical gear joint 133b, and is used to connect and fix the synchronous gear; the cylindrical gear joint 133a is connected by a shaft hole The front longitudinal rod 131 and the cylindrical gear joint 133b are connected to the rear longitudinal rod 132 by means of shaft holes, and the angle between the cylindrical gear joints 133a and 133b is 150-180 degrees to ensure that the front longitudinal rod 131 and the rear longitudinal rod 132 are synchronized around a fixed axis Plane rotation.

As shown in Figure 4, the five-way joint 14 is processed into an integrated structure, and has five connection points in five directions: a lower side contact 141, a right side contact 142, a front side contact 143, a rear side contact 144, and a left side contact 145. No connection structure is designed on the upper side of the joint, which can be hollowed out to reduce the joint quality. These connection points are respectively connected to a unit long rib 11, a unit short rib 12, a rear longitudinal bar 132, a front longitudinal bar 131 and a connecting rib 211 , wherein the connection between the unit long rib 11 and the lower side contact 141, and the connection between the unit short rib 12 and the right side contact 142 are all connected by shaft holes. After the connection, the unit long rib 11 has no relative movement or rotation to the lower side contact 141, and the unit short The rib 12 has no relative movement or rotation to the right side joint 142; the connection between the rear longitudinal bar 132 and the front side joint 143, the connection between the front longitudinal bar 131 and the rear side joint 144 are all connected by pins, and the rear longitudinal bar 132 and the front longitudinal bar 131 can rotate around the axis of the pin; the pin is equipped with a truss driving torsion spring 15 to provide driving force for the expansion of the one-dimensional unfolding truss 1, and a truss limit block 146 is provided at the front side joint 143 and the rear side joint 144 to limit the rear longitudinal direction. The rotation angle of the rod 132 and the front longitudinal rod 131 relative to the five-way joint 14 makes it rotate within the range of 0 to 90 degrees; the connecting rib 211 is connected with the left joint 145 by a pin, and the connecting rib 211 can rotate around the axis of the pin , the pin is equipped with a connecting rib driving torsion spring 215 to provide driving force for the expansion of the mesh support mechanism 2, and a connecting rib limiter 217 is provided at the left contact point 145 to limit the expansion of the connecting rib 211 relative to the five-way joint 14 Angle, so that it can rotate within the range of 0 to 90 degrees.

The connection of four five-way joints 14 and two unit long ribs 11 and two unit short ribs 12 can form a planar rectangular unit, and the five-way joints 14 are located at the corners of the rectangle, and the unit long ribs 11 and unit short ribs 12 They are respectively located at the long and short sides of the rectangle; each planar rectangular unit is placed parallel to each other along a straight line, and every two adjacent planar rectangular units are connected by four longitudinal connecting rods 13, and each longitudinal connecting rod 13 adopts a pin Connect the corresponding five-way joints on two planar rectangular elements to form a one-dimensional unfolded truss. In this example, there are four planar rectangular units in total, which are connected by twelve longitudinal connecting rods to form a truss mechanism deployed along a straight line.

With reference to Fig. 5, the net face unfolding mechanism 2 of the present invention comprises 8 hinged rib unfolding units 21, and each hinged rib unfolding unit 21 comprises a connecting rib 211, a hinged joint 212 and a Y-shaped rib 213, the Y-shaped rib 213 and There are some small holes on the connecting ribs 211 for the binding of flexible cables 3. These 8 hinged rib expansion units 21 are divided into two groups, and the 4 hinged rib expansion units 21 in each group are connected in parallel with each other by pins. On the five-way joint 14, it is distributed outside the long rib 11 of the unit in the deployment mechanism. The flexible cable 3 of the present invention includes m supporting cables 31, n adjusting cables 32 and n-2n/m+m-2 longitudinal supporting cables 33, where n is an integer multiple of m and is not 0. In theory, the adjusting cables The more the number is obtained, the more beneficial it is to improve the surface accuracy of the wire mesh. In this example, n=48. The wire mesh 4 of the present invention is sewn on the support cables 31 and the longitudinal support cables 33 , and is gradually shaped as the hinged rib expansion unit 21 is deployed.

Each support cable 31 is connected to a hinged rib expansion unit 21, and from the five-way joint 14, passes through the two ends of the Y-shaped rib 213 end successively, and is tied to the hinge joint 212. The support cable 31 is used to support the wire mesh 4. Six adjustment cables 32 are arranged on each hinge rib expansion unit 21, and are bound between the support cables 31 and the hinge rib expansion unit 21. One end of the six adjustment cables 32 is connected with the support cable 31 to form six flexible cable connection points, and the other end Tied to the connecting rib 211 and the Y-shaped rib 213, the adjustment cable 32 is used to stretch the support cable 31 to make it approach the ideal parabolic shape; every six longitudinal support cables 33 are located in every two of the above-mentioned two groups of hinged rib expansion units. Between the adjacent hinged rib expansion units 21 , they are tied to the corresponding cable connection points of the two hinged rib expansion units 21 for supporting the wire mesh 4 .

As shown in Figure 6, one end of each hinged joint is connected to the Y-shaped rib 213 by a pin, and the other end is connected to the connecting rib 211 by a pin. Both the Y-shaped rib 211 and the connecting rib 213 can rotate around the axis of the pin. The rib torsion spring 214 provides driving force for the expansion of the hinged rib expansion unit 21, and the hinged rib limit block 216 is provided on the lower side of the hinged joint to limit the expansion angle between the Y-shaped rib 211 and the connecting rib 213, so that it is between 0 and 150° within the range of degrees.

With reference to Fig. 7, the working principle of the present invention is as follows:

When folded, the longitudinal connecting rods 13 between adjacent rectangular units are folded toward the inside of the truss along the plane where the diagonals of the rectangular units are located. The angle between the contact points 143 decreases gradually, and the distance between the adjacent plane rectangular units gradually decreases until the adjacent plane rectangular units are nearly overlapped, so as to complete the folding of the unfolding mechanism 1; at this time, the folding of the mesh support structure 2 is carried out , the angle between the Y-shaped rib 213 and the connecting rib 211 gradually decreases, the angle between the connecting rib 211 and the left contact point 145 gradually decreases, the Y-shaped rib 213 and the connecting rib 211 are folded and gathered on both sides of the expanded truss, and the supporting cables 31. The adjustment cables 32, the longitudinal support cables 33 and the wire mesh 4 are all gathered in the truss and the empty space between the ribs, so as to complete the gathering of the mesh support structure 2.

When unfolding, the longitudinal connecting rods 13 between adjacent rectangular units are opened to the outside of the truss along the plane where the diagonals of the plane rectangular units are located, until the truss limit block 146 plays a limiting role on the front longitudinal rod 131 and the rear longitudinal rod 132, so as to This completes the unfolding of the unfolding mechanism 1; the Y-shaped rib 213 and the connecting rib 211 are deployed on both sides of the unfolding truss until the connecting rib limit block 217 plays a limiting role on the connecting rib 211, and the Y-shaped rib 213 and the connecting rib 211 reach The maximum expansion angle is used to complete the expansion of the mesh surface support structure 2. At this time, the flexible cable 3 is tightened, and the mesh surface forms a required parabolic cylinder.

Claims (9)

1. an expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna, comprise development mechanism (1), wire side supporting mechanism (2), flexible cable (3), woven wire (4), this woven wire (4) is fixed in flexible cable (3), it is characterized in that:

Described development mechanism (1), adopts one dimension expanded truss, realizes gathering and the expansion of antenna,

Described wire side supporting mechanism (2), comprise m hinged rib expanding unit (21), these hinged rib expanding unit symmetries are arranged on the both sides of development mechanism (1), form the skeleton of support metal silk screen (4), m >=4, and m is even number;

Described flexible cable (3), staggered is arranged on wire side supporting mechanism (2), the cylindrical parabolic shape needed for assistant metal net (4) is formed;

Described one dimension expanded truss, comprises m the long rib of unit (11), the short rib of a m unit (12), 2m-4 longitudinal connecting rod (13) and 2m individual five to joint (14);

Each longitudinal connecting rod (13) comprises a front longitudinal rod (131), longitudinal rod (132) and a synchronous connector (133) after one, front longitudinal rod (131) is connected by synchronous connector (133) with rear longitudinal rod (132), and front longitudinal rod (131) and rear longitudinal rod (132) rotate around synchronous connector (133);

Each five to joint (14), there is the tie point in five directions, i.e. downside contact (141), right side connection (142), front side contact (143), rear side contact (144), left side connection (145), these tie points are connected respectively a long rib of unit (11), short rib of unit (12), longitudinal rod (132), a front longitudinal rod (131) and a connection rib (211) after one;

Every four five form a planar rectangular element to joint (14) by two long ribs of unit (11) and two short ribs of unit (12), all planar rectangular elements are connected by longitudinal connecting rod (13), and front longitudinal rod (131) rotates to contact (144) on rear side of joint around five, rear longitudinal rod (132) rotates around front side contact (143), forms the folded truss that can carry out drawing in Yu launching.

2. expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna according to claim 1, is characterized in that:

Each synchronous connector (133), be made up of the first roller gear joint (133a), the second roller gear joint (133b) and clamping plate (133c), and clamping plate (133c) are fixed on the both sides of the first roller gear joint (133a) and the second roller gear joint (133b), the synchronous axial system of front longitudinal rod (131) and rear longitudinal rod (132) can be realized.

3. expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna according to claim 1, is characterized in that:

Each five to the front side contact (143) of joint (14), rear side contact (144) place has truss to drive torsion spring (15) and truss guide vane end stop (146), and this truss drives torsion spring (15) to provide actuating force for folded truss expansion.This truss guide vane end stop (146) is in order to limit the spread of folded truss.

4. expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna according to claim 1, is characterized in that:

Described five adopt integrative-structure to joint (14), and downside contact (141) and the long rib of unit (11), right side connection (142) and the short rib of unit (12) all adopt axis hole to be connected; Front side contact (143) and rear longitudinal rod (132), rear side contact (144) and front longitudinal rod (131), left side connection (145) all adopts to sell with connection rib (21) and is connected.

5. expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna according to claim 1, is characterized in that:

Each hinged rib expanding unit (21), comprises a connection rib (211), an articulated joint (212) and a bifurcation word rib (213);

Connection rib (211) is connected by articulated joint (212) with bifurcation word rib (213), rotates around articulated joint (212);

Connection rib (211) is connected with deployed configuration (1) to the contact (145) of joint by five simultaneously, and connection rib (211) rotates to the contact (145) of joint around five.

6. expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna according to claim 5, is characterized in that:

Articulated joint (212) and connection rib (211) junction are provided with hinged rib and drive torsion spring (214) and hinged rib guide vane end stop (216), this hinged rib drives torsion spring (214) to provide actuating force for the expansion of hinged rib expanding unit, and this hinged rib guide vane end stop (216) is in order to limit slewing area.

7. expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna according to claim 5, is characterized in that:

Connection rib (211) and five is provided with connection rib to contact (145) junction of joint and drives torsion spring (215) and connection rib guide vane end stop (217), this connection rib drives torsion spring (215) to provide actuating force for the expansion of wire side supporting mechanism (2), and this hinged rib guide vane end stop (217) is in order to limit wire side supporting mechanism (2) slewing area.

8. cylinder antenna according to claim 5, is characterized in that: bifurcation word rib (213) and connection rib (211) all have some apertures, in order to bundle flexible cable (3).

9. expandable mesh parabolic cylinder antenna according to claim 1, is characterized in that:

Described flexible cable (3), comprise m root supporting cables (31), n root adjustment rope (32) and n-2n/m+m-2 root and indulge supporting cables (33), n is the integral multiple of m, and is not 0;

Every root supporting cables (31), from five to joint (15), successively through two of bifurcation word rib (213) end, is tied to articulated joint (212) place;

Every root adjustment rope (32) is connected between supporting cables (31) and hinged rib expanding unit (21), forms some flexible cable tie points in the junction of adjustment rope and supporting cables;

Every root is indulged supporting cables (33) and is connected between the upper corresponding flexible cable tie point of adjacent hinge rib expanding unit (21).