Buckling of Ultralight Ladder-type Coilable Space Structures

We analyse the buckling and post-buckling behavior of ultralight ladder-type coilable structures for space solar power applications. The structures are composed of thin-shell longitudinal elements connected by thin rods, which can be flattened and packaged efficiently. Rather than relying on an eigenvalue based analysis, this paper presents an alternative approach to thin-shell buckling based on recent work on the stability of cylindrical and spherical shells. The stability of ladder-type structures loaded by normal pressure is studied using a probe that locally displaces the structure and a stability landscape for the structure is plotted. This landscape plot gives insight into the structure's buckling, post-buckling, and sensitivity to disturbances.