Experimental study and numerical simulation of load-bearing/coiling characteristics of thin-walled lenticular composite booms

As a kind of lightweight composite structure, thin-walled lenticular booms made of fiber reinforced composite are widely used in the aerospace field because of its high stiffness in the unfolded state. In this paper, the load-bearing and coiling characteristics of the thin-walled lenticular composite booms were studied, and the effects of different design parameters and material properties were compared. Thin-walled lenticular composite booms with different ply numbers, ply angles, fiber types and fiber contents were prepared. Free-end loading experiments and coiling experiments were conducted to obtain the load-displacement curves, coiling torques and binding forces. The finite element model was established and the simulation results were compared with those of experiments. It is shown that increasing the ply number, increasing the fiber content and using fibers with lower elastic modulus can significantly enhance the load-bearing capacity of thin-walled lenticular composite booms, meanwhile reducing its coiling capacity. The booms with orthometric ply angle have greater load-bearing capacity, but the ply angle has less effect than the ply numbers, fiber types and fiber contents. The results provide feasibility for the design of thin-walled lenticular composite booms suitable for the aerospace field.