An improved secondary reflector for DVA-2 radio telescope: a case study on application of structural optimization technique

Mohammad Islam; Gordon Lacy

doi:10.1117/12.2311501

6 July 2018 An improved secondary reflector for DVA-2 radio telescope: a case study on application of structural optimization technique

Mohammad Islam, Gordon Lacy

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10700, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VII; 107005T (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2311501
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

Dish Verification Antennae (DVA)–1 demonstrates excellent performance at L-band and can operate reasonably up to 10 GHz. However, with recent technological advances, there is a push towards the development of high frequency radio telescopes up to Q-Band and more. As an attempt to demonstrate the capabilities of the composite radio telescopes at higher frequency range (up to Q-Band), a DVA–2 is currently under construction. In this article the authors will elaborate the design path towards the improved carbon based secondary dish support structure (SDSS) for the DVA–2. In DVA–1, the secondary support structure was directly connected to the secondary reflector at four points. At various gravity loads, it is observed in finite element analysis (FEA) that the distortion from the feed platform and adjacent structures are directly transferred into the secondary rim and eventually on to the surface. To separate the effects, a ring made out of carbon composite was placed between the support structure and the secondary reflector. To investigate the size of the ring and especially the layup of the composite, a topology optimization and free-size optimization was performed. A further improvement was achieved by carefully investigating the deformations in the ring and locally stiffening the connection points of the landing tubes on the ring. All these changes in the SDSS resulted in a 96% reduction in RMS residual error for the worst case condition at 15° elevation angle. A combination of careful analyses and application of optimization techniques was paramount to achieve 50GHz performance.

Citation Download Citation

Mohammad Islam and Gordon Lacy "An improved secondary reflector for DVA-2 radio telescope: a case study on application of structural optimization technique", Proc. SPIE 10700, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VII, 107005T (6 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2311501

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
9 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Carbon

Finite element methods

Composites

Reflectors

Distortion

Computer aided design

Radio telescopes

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years