Root Boundary Conditions for Omega Deployable Booms

We investigate how different root boundary conditions for Omega booms affect the two primary requirements: small stowed volume along with high bending stiffness in the deployed configuration. For each boundary condition two finite element models are developed using the Abaqus software. The first model simulates the coiling process and is intended to get insights into the mechanics of coiling and to retrieve the shape of the transition region between the boom coiled and extended configuration which is used in the second model for computation of the bending stiffness. A specific boom design has been chosen and a physical prototype has been built.