Design of Reinforced Ribs for Spaceborne Parabolic Cylindrical Reflector Antenna Based on Topology Optimization and Parametric Analysis

The normal operation of spaceborne parabolic cylindrical reflector antennas under various operating conditions relies on maintaining the root mean square (RMS) of the reflector surface’s deformation within reasonable limits. In engineering practice, the designing of reinforced ribs is the primary way to control the RMS of the reflector surface. However, the layout and dimensions of reinforced ribs for many existing designs rely on the experience of the designer and lack a theoretical foundation. This leads to suboptimal layouts and dimensions in many designs, deviating from the optimal design. To address these concerns, this study proposes a comprehensive design approach that combines both topology optimization and parametric analysis. Optimization and parametric analysis were conducted for a large-sized spaceborne composite parabolic cylindrical reflector antenna. The layout and dimensions of the reinforced ribs were reconstructed based on the optimization results and parametric analysis. This study also obtained the influence of the height and thickness of the reinforced ribs on the RMS of the reflector surface. Subsequently, utilizing antenna temperature field simulations as thermal excitation inputs, finite element thermal distortion analyses were conducted for the reflector surfaces without reinforced ribs, with the original reinforced ribs designed based on empirical methods, and with optimized reinforced ribs. In comparison to the original design of the reinforced ribs, the optimized design, without an increase in the volume of the reinforced ribs, reduced the RMS of the reflector surface from 0.6025 mm to 0.5561 mm, resulting in an optimization ratio of 7.7%. Moreover, when compared to the reflector surface without reinforced ribs, the optimized design achieved a 17.9% reduction in RMS.