An Experimental and Numerical Comparison of the Mechanical Characteristics of a Space Inflatable Antenna Reflector Made with Kapton and Mylar Films

Kapton and Mylar film materials are used to manufacture space inflatable antenna reflectors; therefore, their mechanical characteristics are considered important parameters for the design of inflatable antenna reflectors. This paper mainly introduces a series of experiments on the mechanical properties of Kapton VN and Kapton HN, and Mylar I and II film specimens, including film tensile tests, film seam tests with tape bonding and glue bonding, and skirt edge joint tests. Therefore, failure modes, stress versus strain curves, ultimate tensile strength, and extension at break are obtained for these specimens of Kapton VN and Kapton HN and Mylar I and II films. Based on these measured data, stress conditions of models with 12 and 18 sections using ANASYS are compared to identify the effect of different sections and pressures on the force of inflatable antenna reflectors.