Theoretical analysis and experiments of a space deployable truss structure

Recently, the deployable structures fabricated using shape memory polymer composites (SMPC) have been developed for its unique properties such as highly reliable, low-cost, light weight and cost-effective mechanisms compared with traditional deployable structures. Shape memory polymer is a kind of smart materials which can memorize the permanent shape and can recover to original shape when be exposed to external stimulus. In order to eliminating effects of low stiffness and strength of pure shape memory polymer, shape memory polymer composites reinforced by particles, carbon nanotubes and fibers were studied. A deployable truss structure made of SMPC was analyzed and fabricated in this paper. The truss was made of multilayer carbon fiber reinforced epoxy-based shape memory polymer composites. Through DMA tests, the glass transformation temperature and mechanical properties of laminates which consist in deployable truss were obtained. The curves of recovery moment as a function of curvatures were also obtained in this paper. The deployable experiments were carried out in order to verify the rationality of deployable truss model. And the experimental results showed that the trusses fabricated in this paper can unfold smoothly and can also be applied as a space deployable structure in the field of spacecraft.