Viscoelastic Analysis Of Stowage And Quasi-Static Deployment Of Composite Tape Springs

This paper presents a theoretical and numerical analysis of the behavior of viscoelastic composite tape springs during stowage and recovery. Analytical expressions are derived for force and moment relaxation during stowage and fold angle recovery after quasi-static deployment in terms of composite viscoelastic properties, stowage time and temperature by directly solving the governing integral equations. The closed-form solutions provide a fast evaluation of stowage effects of composite tape springs without relying on costly nonlinear finite element simulations. The analytical models are applied to tape springs made of isotropic homogeneous epoxy and single-ply plain-weave composite. The theoretical results are compared with finite element simulations of tape spring