Bending-Stiff, Single Degree-of-Freedom Space Structures: Combining Origami and Deployable Shells

This paper presents a thin-shell, bending-stiff, and deployable structure inspired by the origami flasher pattern to develop large-aperture space systems. A novel composite boom cross-section was created as the main load-bearing member and composite tape springs are implemented as transverse battens. A finite element model is developed to perform vibration simulations on idealized and modified models in the deployed configuration to investigate and optimize the stiffness of the architecture. A custom out-of-autoclave and multi-stage manufacturing process is used to produce a large-scale quarter flasher model prototype.