Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project: Test and Analysis of a Large-scale Sandwich Composite Cylinder
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Cylindrical shell buckling under dynamic pressure
Buckling of complete spherical shells to examine Tsien energy hypothesis
Buckling load of cylindrical shell with asymmetric and axisymmetric imperfections and calculation of upper bound to buckling load for shell with axisymmetric imperfections
Buckling studies were conducted on truncated 120 deg conical shells having large end rings and many interior reinforcing rings that are typical of aeroshells used as spacecraft decelerators. Changes in base-end-ring stiffness were accomplished by simply machining away a portion of the base ring between successive buckling tests. Initial imperfection measurements from the test cones were included in the analytical model.
Buckling of a free edge of an axially compressed circular cylindrical shell
Buckling of free edge of an axially-compressed circular cylindrical shell
Buckling of thin-walled cylindrical shells under dynamic loads
Buckling characteristics of eccentrically stiffened cylindrical shells under hydrostatic pressure loading and vibration, buckling and flutter characteristics of stiffened flat plates
Creep buckling of spherical shells
A preliminary sizing study of two cryogenic propellant tanks was performed using a FORTRAN optimization program to determine weight efficient orthogrid designs for the tank barrels sections only. Various tensile and compressive failure modes were considered, including general buckling of cylinders with a shell buckling knockdown factor. Eight independent combinations of three design requirements were also considered and their effects on the tanks weight. The approach was to investigate each design case with a variable shell buckling knockdown factor, determining the most weight efficient combination of orthogrid design parameters. Numerous optimization analyses were performed, and the results presented herein compare the effects of the different design requirements and shell buckling knockdown factor. Through a series of comparisons between design requirements or shell buckling knockdown factors, the relative change in overall tank barrel weights is shown. The findings indicate that the design requirements can substantually increase the tank weight while a less conservative shell buckling knockdown factor can modestly reduce the tank weight.
Buckling characteristics of eccentrically stiffened cylindrical shells under hydrostatic pressure loading and vibration, buckling and flutter characteristics of stiffened flat plates
Axisymmetric deformation effects on cylindrical shell buckling under axial compression
New analysis-based shell buckling design factors (aka knockdown factors), along with associated design and analysis technologies, are being developed by NASA for the design of launch vehicle structures. Preliminary design studies indicate that implementation of these new knockdown factors can enable significant reductions in mass and mass-growth in these vehicles and can help mitigate some of NASA s launch vehicle development and performance risks by reducing the reliance on testing, providing high-fidelity estimates of structural performance, reliability, robustness, and enable increased payload capability. However, in order to validate any new analysis-based design data or methods, a series of carefully designed and executed structural tests are required at both the subscale and full-scale level. This paper describes recent buckling test efforts at NASA on two different orthogrid-stiffened metallic cylindrical shell test articles. One of the test articles was an 8-ft-diameter orthogrid-stiffened cylinder and was subjected to an axial compression load. The second test article was a 27.5-ft-diameter Space Shuttle External Tank-derived cylinder and was subjected to combined internal pressure and axial compression.
Thermal buckling modification in large deflection equations for thin shallow cylindrical shell
Circular cylindrical photoelastic shells buckling modes under axial compression using high speed isoclinic photography, discussing shallow shell equations applicability to early stages
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Engineering and Safety Center Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project is a multicenter project tasked with developing new analysis-based shell buckling design guidelines and design factors (i.e., knockdown factors) through high-fidelity buckling simulations and advanced test technologies. To validate these new buckling knockdown factors for future launch vehicles, the Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project is carrying out structural testing on a series of large-scale metallic and composite cylindrical shells at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama). A fiber optic sensor system was used to measure strain on a large-scale sandwich composite cylinder that was tested under multiple axial compressive loads up to more than 850,000 lb, and equivalent bending loads over 22 million in-lb. During the structural testing of the composite cylinder, strain data were collected from optical cables containing distributed fiber Bragg gratings using a custom fiber optic sensor system interrogator developed at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. A total of 16 fiber-optic strands, each containing nearly 1,000 fiber Bragg gratings, measuring strain, were installed on the inner and outer cylinder surfaces to monitor the test article global structural response through high-density real-time and post test strain measurements. The distributed sensing system provided evidence of local epoxy failure at the attachment-ring-to-barrel interface that would not have been detected with conventional instrumentation. Results from the fiber optic sensor system were used to further refine and validate structural models for buckling of the large-scale composite structures. This paper discusses the techniques employed for real-time structural monitoring of the composite cylinder for structural load introduction and distributed bending-strain measurements over a large section of the cylinder by utilizing unique sensing capabilities of fiber optic sensors.
Imperfect elliptical cylindrical shells buckling under axial compression, demonstrating imperfection sensitivity