Continuum deployable shells made of thin plates

Abstract

This paper covers deployable systems assembled from trapezium plates. When the plate package is unwrapped, a net shell with six loop cells is formed. It is proved that additional degrees of freedom appear in case of certain correlation between the sizes of the six loop faces. When thin plates were used, the continuum approximation of the deployed net could be interpreted as a shell with a wide variety of local curvatures. Kinematics of the continuum model is analyzed by the method of Cartan moving hedron. Mechanical behavior of continuum nets is studied when cylindrical hinges between the plates are completed of shape memory plastic materials. The paper researches into shell transformations from one stable form to the other. Various practical applications of the continuum nets are demonstrated.

Keywords

• continuum deployable shells
• Cartan moving hedron
• plastic materials
• shape memory
• stable equilibrium
• practical application