Damage Tolerance and Assessment of Foam-Inflated Aerospace Structures
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 12, Issue 3
Abstract
Design and operational issues with respect to the use of inflatable-deployable foam-rigidized components in aerospace structures are investigated in this paper. The sample structures used in this study are fabricated from flexible Kapton film formed into a cylindrical shell by bonding a flat sheet along a longitudinal seam. This tubular shell is injected with a hardening urethane foam to form a composite strut coupon. As with all structures touted for aerospace use, the survivability of foam-rigidized structures when subjected to a micrometeor flux is of interest. This issue is investigated in this paper by performing two controlled experiments: (1) Foam-rigidized test coupons were evaluated in their pristine state to determine structural properties, severely damaged in a controlled fashion, and then evaluated again to compare the undamaged to damaged behavior; and (2) a single specimen was repeatedly tested and then slightly damaged to examine how structural behavior evolves as damage accumulates. The results of these experiments are then used to draw conclusions about the utility of foam-rigidized structures in space applications, including an evaluation of appropriate structural health monitoring strategies.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Bernasconi, M. (1988). “Inflatable space-rigidized antenna relectors: Flight experiment definition.” Proc., 39th Congr. of the Int. Astronautical Fedn.
2.
Bernasconi, M., and Reibaldi, G. (1986). “Inflatable space-rigidizing structures: Overview of applications and their technology impact.” Acta Astronautica, 14, 455–465.
3.
Doebling, S. W., Farrar, C. R., Prime, M. B., and Shevitz, D. W. (1996). “Damage identification and health monitoring of structural and mechanical systems from changes in their vibration characteristics: A literature review.” Rep. LA-13070-MS, NTIS, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
4.
Freeland, R., Bilyeu, G., and Veal, G. (1996). “Development of flight hardware for a large, inflatable-deployable antenna experiment.” Acta Astronautica, 38(4–8), 251–260.
5.
Kaouk, M., and Zimmerman, D. C. (1994). “Structural damage assessment using a generalized minimum rank perturbation theory.” AIAA J., 32(4), 836–842.
6.
Lester, D., and Cannon, D. (1996). “Foam inflated rigidized truss structure developed for an SRS technologies solar concentrator.” Proc., 1996 Int. Solar Energy Conf., ASME, NY, 451–458.
7.
Smith, S. W. (1992). “Iterative use of direct matrix updates: Connectivity and convergence.” Proc., 33rd SDM Conf., AIAA, Reston, Va., 1797–1806.
8.
Smith, S. W., and Beattie, C. A. (1991). “Secant-method adjustments for structural models.” AIAA J., 29(1), 119–126.
9.
Smith, S. W., Eckert, J. E., and Zimmerman, D. C. (1998). “Zero-gravity damage evaluation (Z-GraDE).” Proc., 16th Int. Modal Analysis Conf., ASME, NY.
10.
Smith, S. W., Zimmerman, D. C., Bartkowicz, T. J., and Kim, H. M. (1997). “Experiments for damage location in a damped structure.” Proc., 16th ASME Biennial Conf. on Vibration and Noise., Society for Experimental Mechanics, Bellingham, Wash.
11.
“Table of artificial satellites launched between 1957 and 1976.” (1977). Telecommunication J., 44.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
History
Received: Oct 19, 1998
Published online: Jul 1, 1999
Published in print: Jul 1999
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.