Abstract The propulsive characteristics of an Electric Solar Wind Sail are usually evaluated using a simplified model in which all the sail tethers are coplanar and form a sort of rigid disk. However, the three-dimensional arrangement of the tethers is fundamental information in the study of the spacecraft performance, and must be accounted for in refined mission analyses. In this paper, a Finite Element approach is chosen to estimate the deflected shape of the tethers, thus allowing important information on the structural response of the sail to be obtained. A parametric code is developed to perform a static analysis of an Electric Solar Wind Sail, whose requirements are given in terms of payload mass and spacecraft characteristic acceleration. In particular, the tether structural response is investigated using three different beam models, which are compared in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. The analysis is specialized to the noteworthy case of a Sun-facing sail that is placed at a distance of one astronomical unit from the Sun. The numerical results, which concern a set of possible sail configurations, are compared with those taken from analytical models.

中文翻译：

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使用有限元方法进行电动帆静态结构分析

摘要 电动太阳风帆的推进特性通常使用简化模型进行评估，其中所有帆系绳共面并形成一种刚性盘。然而，系绳的三维排列是航天器性能研究中的基本信息，必须在精细的任务分析中加以考虑。在本文中，选择有限元方法来估计系绳的偏转形状，从而获得有关帆结构响应的重要信息。开发了一个参数代码来执行电动太阳风帆的静态分析，其要求在有效载荷质量和航天器特征加速度方面给出。特别是，使用三种不同的梁模型研究了系绳结构响应，在准确性和计算效率方面进行比较。该分析专门针对一个值得注意的案例，即面向太阳的帆被放置在距太阳一个天文单位的距离处。将涉及一组可能的帆配置的数值结果与从分析模型中获得的结果进行比较。