Design of 2-m to 6-m Liquid Mirror Containers

Abstract

A new design is proposed for large (up to 6-m) liquid mirror containers. The design uses Kevlar, foam and aluminum, as in previous designs, but with a different configuration that makes the container lighter, stronger and more rigid. The results of finite element analysis are presented, consisting in the deformations due to temperature changes and to weight, and in the security factor for each material when maximum constraints are applied. Tilt rigidity is also analyzed. They show that the composite material construction technique gives a good performance up to 6 meter diameters. The figures and tables contained in this paper can be used as recipes to build containers having diameters between 2 and 6 meters.