Disturbance analysis of integrated structural/optical models with uncertainties

Disturbance analyses during early design phases of high-performance optical systems are usually conducted on nominal point designs. Performance assessment and resource allocation are based on the analysis results even though structural and disturbance models are initially crude and contain significant errors. Confidence in design margins can be increased if bounds due to uncertainties are placed on performance predictions. The paper describes different types of disturbance analyses and shows the insight provided by a frequency-domain disturbance analysis. Exact sensitivity calculations with respect to open-loop modal parameters are derived, and a method for uncertainty analysis is presented for the special case of uncertain modal parameters. Uncertainty propagation is specified as a constrained optimization problem. A large order integrated model of one Space Interferometry Mission concept demonstrates the framework