柔軟構造大気突入体エアロシェルの初期不整が座屈荷重に及ぼす影響

抄録

In future space transportation technology, reentry-systems are required, which is useful, safe and low-cost. MAAC (Membrane Aeroshell for Atmospheric-entry Capsule) R&D group have been developed the flexible structure atmosphere reentry system. The paper investigates the buckling strength of the flexible membrane reentry structure under static aerodynamic pressures in terms of non-linear finite element method. Numerical results are compared with experimental data obtained from a series of low speed wind tunnel tests using scale models of the proposed membrane aeroshell system. The comparison shows that the numerical results qualitatively agree with the experimental data, although the results clearly overestimate the buckling load of the membrane aeroshell. We conjecture that the discrepancies are originated from geometrical imperfections of the scale models not accounted for in the numerical analysis and introduce plausible patterns of the imperfections into our finite element models. Numerical analysis for the modified finite element models more precisely predicts the buckling loads, indicating that the geometrical imperfections significantly affect the structural strength of the membrane aeroshell.