High fidelity adaptive mirror simulations with reduced order models

TL;DR

This paper introduces a framework for creating efficient simulations of large adaptive mirrors used in telescopes.

Contribution

A new framework for generating reduced order models to simulate large adaptive mirrors efficiently.

Findings

The framework allows for computationally efficient simulations of large adaptive mirrors.

The reduced models were tested on a prototype for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

The approach supports the simulation of full telescope systems with increased dimensions and bandwidths.

Abstract

In the design process of large adaptive mirrors numerical simulations represent the first step to evaluate the system design compliance in terms of performance, stability and robustness. For the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes increased system dimensions and bandwidths lead to the need of modeling not only the deformable mirror alone, but also all the system supporting structure or even the full telescope. The capability to perform the simulations with an acceptable amount of time and computational resources is highly dependent on finding appropriate methods to reduce the size of the resulting dynamic models. In this paper we present a framework developed together with the company Microgate to create a reduced order structural model of a large adaptive mirror as a preprocessing step to the control system simulations. The reduced dynamic model is then combined with the remaining system components allowing to simulate the full adaptive mirror in a computationally efficient way. We analyze the feasibility of our reduced models for Microgate’s prototype of the adaptive mirror of the Giant Magellan Telescope.

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