PARAMETRIC STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF MEMBRANE TENSION ON SUNSHIELD DYNAMICS

The NGST sunshield is a lightweight, flexible structure consisting of pretensioned membranes supported by deployable booms. The structural dynamic behavior of the sunshield must be well understood in order to predict its influence on observatory performance. A 1/10 th scale model of the sunshield has been developed for ground testing to provide data to validate modeling techniques for thinfilm membrane structures. The validated models can then be used to predict the behaviour of the full scale sunshield. This paper summarizes the most recent tests performed on the 1/I0 'h scale sunshield to study the effect of membrane preload on sunshield dynamics. Topics to be covered include the test setup, procedures, and a summary of results.