Enhancing the Bending Stiffness of Nanosatellite Composite Panel

The extreme working environment presented in many forms such as inevitable vibrations caused by various sources can lead to problems of the impairment of the nanosatellite functionality and integrity of its structure, as well as weakening the protection of internal components, which may trigger minor structural damage to total failure. To solve these addressed problems in this work, the bending stiffness of square laminated composite panel used in the structure of CubeSat, a version of nanosatellite, has been improved. A literature review for the previous studies and publications related to the current work has been studied. A mathematical equation that describes the stiffness behaviour of the composite panel has been derived based on the classical laminated plate theory (CLPT). The equation of motion (E.O.M) is also derived according to the Euler-Lagrange energy equation of the second kind. For determining the eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes of vibrating panel, Fourier series is used to solve the E.O.M of plate supported with a numerical solution using finite element method (FEM) for verification. The optimisation process is conducted to improve the bending stiffness of the structure, which is indicated by the increased value of first mode fundamental frequency, by finding the optimum stacking sequence for a set of design constraints using Miki Diagram method. The obtained results and conclusion from the addressed problem have been reported at the end of this work presenting the enhanced composite-panel bending stiffness and showed a promising findings that believed to contribute solving problems relevant to structural performance of aerospace structures.