Abstract
The trend in future space high precision reflectors is going towards large aperture, lightweight and actively controlled
deformable antennas. An adaptive shape control system for a Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite (CFRC) reflector is
conducted by Piezoelectric Ceramic Transducer (PZT) actuators. This adaptive shape control system has been shown to
effectively mitigate common low order wave-front error, but it is inevitably plagued by high order wave-front error
control. In order to improve the controllability of the adaptive CFRC reflector control system for high order wave-front
error, the design of adaptive CFRC reflector requires optimizing further. According to numerical and experimental
results, the print-through error induced by manufacturing and PZT actuators actuation is a type of predominant high
order wave-front error. This paper describes a design which some secondary rib elements are embedded within the
triangular cells of the primary ribs. These small secondary ribs are designed to support the reflector surface’s weak
region. Controllability of this new adaptive CFRC reflector control system with small secondary ribs is evaluated by
generalized Zernike functions. This new design scheme can reduce high order residual error and suppress the high order
wave-front error such as print-through error. Finally, design parameters of the adaptive CFRC reflector control system
with small secondary ribs, such as primary rib height, secondary rib height, cut-out height of primary rib, are optimized.
