Calculation of antenna reflectors taking into account initial and temperature deformations

Abstract

Due to the need to use telecommunications satellite systems, there has been growing interest in parabolic reflector antennas operating in open space. Such designs are subject to a number of strict requirements in terms of geometric accuracy, surface smoothness, dimensional stability under heat, high quality of the reflective surface, and resistance to ultraviolet radiation, atomic oxygen, and other factors in outer space. With the exception of dimensional stability under heat, these requirements were initially met by manufacturing metal mirrors stamped from steel or cast aluminum materials. However, in recent years, composite materials with low linear thermal expansion coefficients have increasingly been used for these structures. Ensuring the geometric accuracy of parabolic reflectors at the manufacturing stage is one of the important technological tasks. The initial geometric parameters of composite reflectors depend on the manufacturing technology. To ensure high surface quality and geometric accuracy of reflectors, it is necessary to have high-precision mandrels with a high-quality surface. The manufacture of mandrels is a rather complex and expensive process. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a calculation method that allows, at the design stage, to calculate the geometry of the equipment that ensures the specified geometric accuracy of the reflector. One of the urgent tasks is to determine the dimensional deviations of the product after removal from the mandrel. Here it is necessary to take into account the initial