Exact mesh shape design of large cable-network antenna reflectors with flexible ring truss supports

An exact-designed mesh shape with favorable surface accuracy is of practical significance to the performance of large cable-network antenna reflectors. In this study, a novel design approach that could guide the generation of exact spatial parabolic mesh configurations of such reflector was proposed. By incorporating the traditional force density method with the standard finite element method, this proposed approach had taken the deformation effects of flexible ring truss supports into consideration, and searched for the desired mesh shapes that can satisfy the requirement that all the free nodes are exactly located on the objective paraboloid. Compared with the conventional design method, a remarkable improvement of surface accuracy in the obtained mesh shapes had been demonstrated by numerical examples. The present work would provide a helpful technical reference for the mesh shape design of such cable-network antenna reflector in engineering practice.