Innovative satellite deployment mechanisms: in-depth design optimization and structural analysis

The Italian 'programma regionale fondo europeo di sviluppo regionale' (PR FESR) includes a two-year plan commissioned to the Aerospace engineering department of Bologna University that consists in developing a 6U CubeSat satellite whose main structure would be entirely designed and realized in Forlì laboratories. The present work will represent a starting point, an overview of what should be done afterwards. We’ll intently discuss about designing of a deployment mechanism for solar arrays and a frame able to support solar cells. We will mount these secondary structures on a primary structure and we will perform a series of analysis by means of software like Ansys. The designing phase will be followed by finite element method analysis (FEM) and vibrational analysis aiming to assess the different loads the structure undergoes during the launch phase and stage separation, namely phases in which structure will undergo the highest stresses. We’ll focus on mathematics and physics related to vibrational analysis with a particular concern for random vibrations defined through power spectral density (PSD). Finally, we’ll discuss both design and numerical results, data obtained to have a preliminary report that should be useful for the core program development thereafter.