Lightweight design of the rectangular mirror using topology optimization

That minimizing the mass of space optical remote sensor at the same time guaranteeing of structural rigidity and surface shape accuracy, became a new critical research topic. This paper achieves detailed design of meniscus rectangular lens body structure by taking the choice of materials, design of supporting structure and lightweight form of mirror into account. And we established lightweight concrete of the mirror under self-weight by the method of topological optimization design. For the optimization, we used a 3-D model of the rectangular mirror and calculated based on that making minimum weight of the mirror as an objective function constrained by the displacement of the mirror surface. Finally finite element analysis method was adopted to get the optimization results analyzed and compared with the traditional triangular lightweight model. Analysis results prove that: the new mirror is superior to the traditional model in surface accuracy and structural rigidity, PV value, RMS value and the lightweight rate. With enough high dynamic-static stiffness and thermal stability, this kind of mirror can meet the demand under the self-weight and the random vibration environment respectively. So this article puts forward a new idea in the lightweight design of rectangular mirror.