Dynamic Modeling and Ground Test of Tethered-net

Abstract

Flexible tethered-net, a new kind of structure for advanced concepts in space exploration, has special potential application such as capturing space debris and building huge antenna. A critical issue in the design and analysis of space net system is deployment of modelling technology. The dynamics behaviour of flexible net systems is investigated based on finite segment approach in this paper. The flexible net is modelled as a series of collected semi-damp springs with masses lumped at appropriated nodes. Besides, a comprehensive study on a model for the tethered-net based on absolute nodal coordinates formulation (ANCF) is provided. Simulations show that the results based on the ANCF modelling method present a good agreement with that based on the conventional semi–spring damper modelling method. Then the flexible multibody dynamics models has been verified by comparison with ground experiment.