Wave control of a flexible space tether based on elastic metamaterials

This study proposes a spider-web elastic metamaterial to suppress vibrations in space slender structures, such as flexible space tethers. The metamaterial consists of unit cells that are periodically distributed on the space tether to obtain band gaps. The finite element model of the unit cell is established by employing the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) due to the large deformation of the structure. The eigenfrequencies and corresponding vibration modes of the unit cell are obtained by ANCF. Moreover, the band gap of the unit cell is calculated based on the phonon crystal theory. The relationship between the vibration modes and the band gaps is analyzed. Finally, an experiment is conducted to verify the vibration transmission characteristics of finite period cells. The results show the effectiveness of the spider-web elastic metamaterial for vibration suppression of a flexible tether. This study provides insights into the use of elastic metamaterials for vibration isolation in space tether systems.