Design and analysis of a deployable antenna for nanosatellites

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Μπέκας, Ιωάννης-Θεόδωρος
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Bekas, Ioannis-Theodoros
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2023
• Θέματα: Nanosatellites; Computer Aided Design (CAD); Kinematic analysis; Finite Element Analysis (FEA); Aerospace engineering; Νανοδορυφόροι; Σχεδιασμός με χρήση υπολογιστή; Κινηματική ανάλυση; Ανάλυση με χρήση πεπερασμένων στοιχείων; Αεροδιαστημική μηχανική

One of the leading trends of the past decades regarding satellites has been the ever more reduction in their size, leading to the creation of a class characterized by their small dimensions and light weight, nanosatellites. These have found use cases in a plethora of applications, many of which require high gain telecommunication antennas. The present diploma thesis aims to design and analyze such an antenna suited for use in nanosatellites. At first, a literature overview is conducted, in which deployable antenna concepts designed for satellites and their applicability for nanosatellites are presented. Moving forward, an antenna model is designed in Catia environment and kinematically analyzed in MSC Adams environment. With the results and knowledge gained from this model and with the target of greater reduction in stowed volume a second antenna model is created. After its design, kinematic and structural (modal and quasi-static) analyses are performed, with the structural analysis being performed in a FEA software environment. Concluding, the two models are compared and the effect of the design choices on the results of their analyses are outlined. Summarizing, based on the conclusions drawn from the models, changes and optimizations to the design of the antenna as well as the parametrization and execution of the analyses are proposed. Thus, the next steps for the continuation of this work are put forward.