– Orbital maneuver of the spacecraft can cause large-amplitude vibration of its flexible solar array, which leads to large dynamic stress and a risk of structural failure and fatigue failure. This paper aims to provide a method to reduce such vibration.
– Through controlling the rotation at the root of the solar array, a method of vibration reduction is proposed using zero-placement input shaping technique. Experimental research on a beam scale model of the solar array is performed to verify the effectiveness of the method. Simulation of a detailed example is carried out to investigate whether the method can be applied in engineering.
– The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of such method. The simulation results indicate that, by adopting the presented method, the vibration induced by orbital maneuver can be diminished remarkably.
– Studies on the robustness of the method are left for further work. Additionally, since only the first-order bending vibration of the flexible solar array is eliminated, further improvements are required such that the stated method can be applied to suppress multi-mode vibration.
– An effective method is proposed for spacecraft designers planning to actively suppress the vibration of flexible solar array during the process of orbital maneuver.
– This paper fulfils a source of theoretical and experimental studies for orbital maneuver system design and offers practical help for spacecraft designers.
