Vibration analysis of a deployable structure using Constant-Q nonstantionary Gabor transform and Fourier transform

Deployable structures are so widely employed in spacecraft, which are folded during launch to fit inside the launcher's payload fairing and deployed to be the structures on-orbit. In order to more accurately obtain vibration properties of the solar arrays with joint clearances, a set of experiment device is developed, and vibrations of the deployable structure are stimulated by means of hammer impact method. Constant-Q nonstationary Gabor frame transform and Fourier transform are described and employed to analyze vibration properties of the deployable structure. It is found that the damping becomes greater along with the vibration frequencies increasing, and the energy of vibration of the outer panel tends to distribute in more frequencies in contrast with the inner panel. Compared with the deployed state, a more serious wide-frequency phenomenon occurs in the folded situation, which indicates that the effect of the clearance is stronger in the folded situation. It is shown that the vibration analysis using Constant-Q nonstationary Gabor transform and Fourier transform is helpful to reveal dynamic performance of this type of deployable structures.