Fast optimal design of a flexure for lightweight, horizontally supported mirror

Pingwei Zhou; Shuyan Xu; Changxiang Yan; Xiaohui Zhang

doi:10.1117/1.JATIS.5.2.024001

16 April 2019 Fast optimal design of a flexure for lightweight, horizontally supported mirror

Pingwei Zhou, Shuyan Xu, Changxiang Yan, Xiaohui Zhang

Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, Vol. 5, Issue 2, 024001 (April 2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.5.2.024001

Abstract

Due to optical performance requirements, the primary mirror assembly must have the ability to be unaffected by environmental influences. These environmental influences include gravity, assembly error, and thermal change, by which external loads are imposed on the mirror. The external loads degrade the mirror surface accuracy and cause misalignment between mirrors. We describe a method to determine the allowable external loads. The performance of a flexure is evaluated by the transmitted loads to the mirror. The force acting on the mirror was analyzed under various conditions and the influence functions were obtained using inertia relief. With the knowledge of influence functions, the relationship between external loads and mirror surface distortion was built. According to the error budget of the primary mirror, the permissible loads required of the flexure were directly established. The optimization was achieved through optimizing the compliance of the flexure without mirror. With our method, the mirror design and flexure design are decoupled, and time and resources required for optimization are reduced. A parallel flexure is demonstrated for a 2-m lightweight, horizontally supported mirror.

Citation Download Citation

Pingwei Zhou, Shuyan Xu, Changxiang Yan, and Xiaohui Zhang "Fast optimal design of a flexure for lightweight, horizontally supported mirror," Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 5(2), 024001 (16 April 2019). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JATIS.5.2.024001

Received: 19 November 2018; Accepted: 1 April 2019; Published: 16 April 2019

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available