Experimental research of inflatable deployment dynamics of folded membrane booms

Inflatable membrane boom used to deploy and support spacestructures is a key component for many space inflatable structures. Z-foldedtype is one kind of basic folded membrane booms. In this paper, an inflationdeployment experimental system in equivalent microgravity environment isestablished based on air track which resolves the effect of that gravitycaused friction. Non-contact photoelectricity measurement effectively avoidsthe disturbance of contact sensor to the inflation deployment process. Theeffects of different inflation flows, variant geometry dimensions andloading/unloading on deployable end on dynamic properties are researched.Inflation flow, diameter, and payload mass are chosen as main parameters inthe experiment. Inflation deployment process is analyzed by dimensiontheory, and analysis of experimental error is carried out. The experimentalresults indicate that the maximal deployment velocity of the folded booms isboth direct relation of gas flow and inverse relation of the boom cubicdiameter.