Floating Design Method of Meteorological Satellite Structure for Thermal Stress Release and Vibration Attenuation

Optical system is an import part of a meteorological satellite. A tiny deformation or jitter of the optical bench will deteriorate the quality of images. Once a satellite is on-orbit, thermal stress from connected neighbor structures is a major factor for the deformation and high frequency vibrations from control actuators are the major source for the jitter. To improve the performance of a meteorological satellite, with the proposed new generation geostationary meteorological satellite of China as an application, a new design method based on flexible connection is developed. This method, named as Floating Design Method, can release thermal stress between the optical bench and the main structure by replacing the ordinary rigid connectors into high damping flexible connectors made from the Metallic Rubber (MR) material. In the mean time, the high damping level of the MR material can effectively attenuate the vibration response of the optical instruments. The finite element analysis results of two design approaches are provided in the present paper, which show that the proposed design method can effectively reduce the thermal deformation of the optical bench and meanwhile attenuate the vibration response.