Preliminary survey of nonlinear response behaviors of a solar array phenomena model

With the advent of large, flexible substructures on-orbit, such as the radiators and solar arrays of the International Space Station Alpha (ISSA) and the solar arrays of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the complexity of the dynamic response of these elements becomes a key issue in their performance and in their influence on the system performance. To understand the potential issues, an experimental survey was conducted of a flexible solar array from the Dynamic Scale Model Technology (DSMT) program at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). This model was designed as a hybrid l/10:l/5-scale (dimensionalidynamic) representative of the flexible solar array for the space station. This presentation is a selection of the nonlinear response behaviors exhibited by this solar array phenomena model in three different test configurations: cantilevered, free-free horizontal, and free-free vertical. Nonlinear behaviors were characterized using time histories, frequency spectra, phase-plane portraits, and Poincare maps. Superharmonic resonances, subharmonic resonances, combination resonances, jumps, saturation, and modal energy exchange were observed and are presented.