CFRP structure for the LBT instrument LINC-NIRVANA

Ralf-Rainer Rohloff; Norbert Münch; Armin Böhm; Wolfram Schlossmacher; Carsten Schöppinger; Hartmut Neugeboren; Henrik Wittke; Henning Wichmann

doi:10.1117/12.671314

6 July 2006 CFRP structure for the LBT instrument LINC-NIRVANA

Ralf-Rainer Rohloff, Norbert Münch, Armin Böhm, Wolfram Schlossmacher, Carsten Schöppinger, Hartmut Neugeboren, Henrik Wittke, Henning Wichmann

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6273, Optomechanical Technologies for Astronomy; 62730Z (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671314
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2006, Orlando, Florida , United States

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) structure for the interferometric instrument LINC-NIRVANA (LN) at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) Arizona, USA. This structure carries all components between the two "bent" Gregorian foci of the individual telescopes necessary to combine the light of the two arms coherently. Especially developed for aerospace and defence, CFRP materials now find widespread use across a number of other applications where their special properties are beneficial. We will profit in LN from the good rigidity, high strength, low thermal expansion, low mass and high damping properties of CFRP. An extended Finite Element Analysis was performed to simulate the properties of the structure for different telescope positions and different temperatures. We built a 560 mm x 550 mm x 385 mm test piece of the LN optical bench for flexure tests to confirm the results of the Finite Element Analysis. The complete LN instrument with a mass of 7.5 tons will be mounted at a tilting unit to simulate the different telescope positions.

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Ralf-Rainer Rohloff, Norbert Münch, Armin Böhm, Wolfram Schlossmacher, Carsten Schöppinger, Hartmut Neugeboren, Henrik Wittke, and Henning Wichmann "CFRP structure for the LBT instrument LINC-NIRVANA", Proc. SPIE 6273, Optomechanical Technologies for Astronomy, 62730Z (6 July 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.671314

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