Designing self-deployable membranes integrated with elastic frames

抄録

The objective of this study is to design self-deployable membranes integrated with elastic frames that can be deployed by intrinsic elasticity. The deployment by elasticity is relatively simple rather than mechanical and hydraulic actuating systems so that deployable structures do not lose the advantages of having compactness and portability. In this study, the elastic convex tape with a characteristic arc-shaped cross section (so-called carpenter tape) was used as a driving force to deploy membranes. Numerical simulation revealed that until the elastic buckling occurred, the stiffness of the convex tape was 50 times higher than that of a flat tape with the equivalent width and thickness. We fabricated the deployable membrane with the pattern of the origami-based deployable array by Zirbel et al. using a sheet of paper and integrated three convex tapes on it symmetrically along the straight fold lines of the membrane. In the deployment experiment, the membrane was successfully deployed from 100 mm to 700 mm in diameter within 0.34 seconds; i.e., the membrane integrated with the convex tapes was self-deployable. Also, the convex tapes worked as supporting frames to maintain the deployed shape of the membrane owing to its high stiffness.