Mechanical Response of Variable and Constant-Stiffness Cylindrical Shells for Launcher Structures

Conference paper (2018)

Authors

E. Labans Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanics - Aerospace Engineering
C. Bisagni Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanics - Aerospace Engineering
Research Group
Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanics (Aerospace Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2018 E. Labans, C. Bisagni
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Published Date

2018

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Structures & Materials

Research Group

Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanics

Abstract

The ability to steer the carbon fibre tape, varying the tow angle can open new designs of cylindrical shells – the main structural component of the space launcher vehicles. This research presents experimental and numerical investigation of two carbon-epoxy cylindrical shells – a cylinder with conventional layup made of unidirectional prepreg and a variable-stiffness cylinder manufactured by applying advanced fibre placement technology. The shells were tested in compression until buckling, measuring load-shortening and capturing the buckling shape by digital image correlation systems. For the purpose of modelling the variable-stiffness cylinder, a simplified stiffness approximation approach was applied. The obtained load-shortening curves and buckling shapes demonstrated good correlation with non-linear numerical models. The results of the investigation contributes to the understanding the phenomenon of buckling of variable-stiffness cylindrical shells, and the influence of initial geometric imperfections and thickness variations.