Earthquake safety system design for a telescope primary mirror

F. Perrotta

doi:10.1117/12.789088

9 July 2008 Earthquake safety system design for a telescope primary mirror

F. Perrotta

Proceedings Volume 7017, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy III; 70171S (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.789088
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2008, Marseille, France

Abstract

The VST telescope is a wide field survey telescope partially installed at Cerro Paranal (Chile). Due to the geological nature of the area, telescopes in Chile are always submitted to unpredictable and sometimes severe earthquake conditions. The proper design of an "ad hoc" safety system for the main mirror inside the cell is therefore mandatory for a safe operation of the telescope, in order to avoid unpleasant consequences in terms of critical loss of the main optical element. A multi-step detailed dynamic analysis has been performed in order to asses the characteristic of safety devices, in term of stiffness, damping and positions with respect to the mirror. The paper describes the procedure followed while giving an overview of dynamic analysis capabilities of MSC-Nastran code. The procedure proposed follows the requirements of Eurocode 8 regulations for the design of earthquake safe structures.

Citation Download Citation

F. Perrotta "Earthquake safety system design for a telescope primary mirror", Proc. SPIE 7017, Modeling, Systems Engineering, and Project Management for Astronomy III, 70171S (9 July 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.789088

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