Failure analysis of a high precision deployable reflector in TED test

Abstract This paper investigates phenomenon and potential reasons for failure in TED (thermal elastic distortion) test of a high precision deployable reflector which is designed for the second HTS in China, the ChinaSat-18. Firstly, configuration of the reflector is introduced to give a comprehensive understanding of the reflector design. Then, setup and results of the thermal elastic distortion test are presented, and the test results are evaluated from two aspects: arm depointing and shell distortion, failure phenomenon of the test is also described in detail. Moreover, failure mode analysis is presented, and the final root cause of the failure is illustrated which indicates that the failure is caused by the arm-backup structure interface sliding. Failure analysis of the arm-backup structure interface is conducted and the same failure phenomenon is reproduced by analysis. Finally, a feasible repair scheme for engineering application is proposed, then thermal elastic distortion test after repaired is conducted in thermal vacuum chamber and the test results validate the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed failure cause analysis and repair scheme.