A deformation model of flexible, high area-to-mass ratio debris under perturbations and validation method

A new type of space debris was recently discovered by Schildknecht in near -geosynchronous orbit (GEO). These objects were later identified as exhibiting properties associated with High Area-to-Mass ratio (HAMR) objects. According to their brightness magnitudes (light curve), high rotation rates and composition properties (albedo, amount of specular and diffuse reflection, colour, etc), it is thought that these objects are multilayer insulation (MLI). Observations have shown that this debris type is very sensitive to environmental disturbances, particularly solar radiation pressure, due to the fact that their shapes are easily deformed leading to changes in the Area-to-Mass ratio (AMR) over time. This thesis proposes a simple effective flexible model of the thin, deformable membrane with two different methods. Firstly, this debris is modelled with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) by using Bernoulli-Euler theory called “Bernoulli model”. The Bernoulli model is constructed with beam elements consisting 2 nodes and each node has six degrees of freedom (DoF). The mass of membrane is distributed in beam elements. Secondly, the debris based on multibody dynamics theory call “Multibody model” is modelled as a series of lump masses, connected through flexible joints, representing the flexibility of the membrane itself. The mass of the membrane, albeit low, is taken into account with lump masses in the joints. The dynamic equations for the masses, including the constraints defined by the connecting rigid rod, are derived using fundamental Newtonian mechanics. The physical properties of both flexible models required by the models (membrane density, reflectivity, composition, etc.), are assumed to be those of multilayer insulation. Both flexible membrane models are then propagated together with classical orbital and attitude equations of motion near GEO region to predict the orbital evolution under the perturbations of solar radiation pressure, Earth’s gravity field, luni-solar gravitational fields and self-shadowing effect. These results are then compared to two rigid body models (cannonball and flat rigid plate). In this investigation, when comparing with a rigid model, the evolutions of orbital elements of the flexible models indicate the difference of inclination and secular eccentricity evolutions, rapid irregular attitude motion and unstable cross-section area due to a deformation over time. Then, the Monte Carlo simulations by varying initial attitude dynamics and deformed angle are investigated and compared with rigid models over 100 days. As the results of the simulations, the different initial conditions provide unique orbital motions, which is significantly different in term of orbital motions of both rigid models. Furthermore, this thesis presents a methodology to determine the material dynamic properties of thin membranes and validates the deformation of the multibody model with real MLI materials. Experiments are performed in a high vacuum chamber (10-4 mbar) replicating space environment. A thin membrane is hinged at one end but free at the other. The free motion experiment, the first experiment, is a free vibration test to determine the damping coefficient and natural frequency of the thin membrane. In this test, the membrane is allowed to fall freely in the chamber with the motion tracked and captured through high velocity video frames. A Kalman filter technique is implemented in the tracking algorithm to reduce noise and increase the tracking accuracy of the oscillating motion. The forced motion experiment, the last test, is performed to determine the deformation characteristics of the object. A high power spotlight (500-2000W) is used to illuminate the MLI and the displacements are measured by means of a high resolution laser sensor. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and multibody dynamics of the experimental setups are used for the validation of the flexible model by comparing with the experimental results of displacements and natural frequencies.

High performance terahertz resonant tunnelling diode sources and broadband antenna for air-side radiation

Resonant tunnelling diode (RTD) is known to be the fastest electronics device that can be fabricated in compact form and operate at room temperature with potential oscillation frequency up to 2.5 THz. The RTD device consists of a narrow band gap quantum well layer sandwiched between two thin wide band gap barriers layers. It exhibits negative differential resistance (NDR) region in its current-voltage (I-V) characteristics which is utilised in making oscillators. Up to date, the main challenge is producing high output power at high frequencies in particular. Although oscillation frequencies of ~ 2 THz have been already reported, the output power is in the range of micro-Watts. This thesis describes the systematic work on the design, fabrication, and characterisation of RTD-based oscillators in microwave/millimetre-wave monolithic integrated circuits (MMIC) form that can produce high output power and high oscillation frequency at the same time. Different MMIC RTD oscillator topologies were designed, fabricated, and characterised in this project which include: single RTD oscillator which employs one RTD device, double RTDs oscillator which employs two RTD devices connected in parallel, and coupled RTD oscillators which combine the powers of two oscillators over a single load, based on mutual coupling and which can employ up to four RTD devices. All oscillators employed relatively large size RTD devices for high power operation. The main challenge was to realise high oscillation frequency (~ 300 GHz) in MMIC form with the employed large sized RTD devices. To achieve this aim, proper designs of passive structures that can provide small values of resonating inductances were essential. These resonating inductance structures included shorted coplanar wave guide (CPW) and shorted microstrip transmission lines of low characteristics impedances Zo. Shorted transmission line of lower Zo has lower inductance per unit length. Thus, the geometrical dimensions would be relatively large and facilitate fabrication by low cost photolithography. A series of oscillators with oscillation frequencies in the J-band (220 – 325 GHz) range and output powers from 0.2 – 1.1 mW have been achieved in this project, and all were fabricated using photolithography. Theoretical estimation showed that higher oscillation frequencies (> 1 THz) can be achieved with the proposed MMIC RTD oscillators design in this project using photolithography with expected high power operation. Besides MMIC RTD oscillators, reported planar antennas for RTD-based oscillators were critically reviewed and the main challenges in designing high performance integrated antennas on large dielectric constant substrates are discussed in this thesis. A novel antenna was designed, simulated, fabricated, and characterised in this project. It was a bow-tie antenna with a tuning stub that has very wide bandwidth across the J-band. The antenna was diced and mounted on a reflector ground plane to alleviate the effect of the large dielectric constant substrate (InP) and radiates upwards to the air-side direction. The antenna was also investigated for integration with the all types of oscillators realised in this project. One port and two port antennas were designed, simulated, fabricated, and characterised and showed the suitability of integration with the single/double oscillator layout and the coupled oscillator layout, respectively.