Liu Rongqiang

Design and Experiment on a Lock/Release Mechanism Based on Shape Memory Alloy for SAR Antenna

Lock/release mechanism has already been applied in spacecraft to resist the rocket impact. This paper presents a novel lock/release mechanism based on shape memory alloy (SMA) wire. The proposed mechanism has low shock and high load capacity. Spring driving force, unlocking trigger force, and kinetic analysis were performed, and dynamic analysis of the mechanism was conducted using ADAMS. Phase transition temperature experiment on the SMA wire, unlocking resistance force experiment and unlocking impact experiment were conducted and verified the validity of the design scheme and theoretical analysis.

Deploying dynamics experiment of tape-spring hinges for deployable mechanism

Flexible tape-spring hinges can be folded elastically and are able to self-deploy by releasing stored strain energy with fewer component parts and slight weights. Deploying dynamic experimental setup is designed and constructed to analyze the dynamic behaviors. A Phantom V12.1 high-speed camera was applied to record the deployment of the tape-spring hinge. Deployment dynamics behaviors of opposite-sense and equal-sense bending for single tape-spring (STS) hinge, single-layer tape-spring (SLTS) hinge, equal and non-equal thickness double-layer tape-spring (DLTS) hinge were investigated by experiments.