Abstract
The deployment simulation of folded inflatable antenna beam is important to understand inflatable deployment behavior in space environment as well as guiding and improving future packaging and deployment concepts. This paper shows a finite element analyzing method of the deployment motion, which is based on a control volume (CV) approach. The ideal gas law and explicit integral method are used to simulate the deployment process. Three folded configurations, namely Z-folded/coiled/ telescopically-folded configurations are investigated. Furthermore, for Z-folded inflatable beam, the effects of inflation rate and membrane thickness on deployment behavior are discussed. The simulation results show that the main factors to affect the deployment stabilization of inflatable structures are the corresponding folded configuration, inflation rate and membrane thickness.