Abstract:

In order to describe how the manufacturing error of the cable length influences the surface accuracy ofcable antennas,a whole coordinate iteration algorithm by the name of WCIA is proposed.The proposed WCIA simulatesthe process,in which all the free nodes of the cable-net structure with the random error of the cable length movetowards other equilibrium states.Then,a calculation model of the hoop truss cable net antenna is analyzed by usingWCIA and the finite element method separately,and the analytical results obtained through the two methods are compared.Thus,WCIA is proved to be accurate,valid and feasible.Finally,WCIA is employed to analyze the influencesof the error distribution,the cable length tolerance and the cable pretension on the surface accuracy,and to performthe fitting of the relationships between the synthetic errors of the surface and the cable length error as well as thecable pretension,thus obtaining the fitting formulas which can meet the engineering requirements.

Key words: aerospace structure, cable length error, cable-net antenna, surface accuracy analysis, whole coordi-nateteration method