Curing of large prepreg shell in solar synchronous Low Earth Orbit: Precession flight regimes

We investigate the curing of large shell construction made of epoxy resin/carbon fibers prepreg under free space conditions in solar synchronous Low Earth Orbit. The curing kinetics is described by first order kinetic equation with auto-acceleration and deceleration parameters based on the experimental data. Heating of the shell is provided by solar radiation. The heat distribution in the shell is modelled based on partial absorbance of the solar radiation, the prepreg thermal conductivity and thermal capacity, radiation heat transfer between inner surfaces of the shell and the gas thermal conductivity. The iterated algorithm of curing was developed. Three flight regimes based on the circular motion of a construction have been considered: 1 – the axis of a shell lies in the tangent plane to the orbit and makes a constant angle with the tangent; 2 – under conditions (1), a shell rotates around its axis with a constant angular velocity; 3 – under conditions (2), the axis of the shell precesses around the tangent to the orbit. It was found, that the parameters of the motion (i.e. angular velocity of the rotation around the axis, precession angular velocity and precession angle) could be optimised in such way, that the whole shell can be completely cured under the solar radiation. •Curing of epoxy composite in space is proposed for large space construction.•Solar synchronous Low Earth Orbit is considered for a curing orbit.•Orbital motion with the axis of the shell precesses around the tangent is optimised.