Laurent Blanchard

Hybrid tape-spring for deployable hexapod

In this work we present a new concept of a hybrid tape-spring for the deployment of space structures. The control of its unreeling, needed to avoid any risk of damage, is achieved thanks to a local heating of thermoplastic layers stuck on its surface. The lay-up properties and the geometry are chosen by minimizing the strain energy of the coiled state. The feasibility of the concept is proved experimentally and numerically thanks to a rst ABAQUS FEM model describing the coiling and the unreeling of the tape-spring.