Session: 01-07-01: Nonlinear Problems in Aerospace Structures

Paper Number: 107244

107244 - Nonlinear Analysis of Failure Onset and Free-Edge Stress State of Ultra-Thin Composite Booms. 

During the last decades, space systems miniaturization has become predominant thanks to the availability of new compact instruments and low-cost launches for small objects and satellites.  However, for some applications (e.g. antennas, solar sails, star shields, etc.), dimensions still matter. To meet this need these systems generally make use of deployable mechanisms. Among the others, these may consist of thin and, eventually, ultra-thin elastic composite structures [1] folded through a rolling mechanism and can be deployed to acquire a rod-like shape, releasing the energy stowed in their unfolded configuration. Nevertheless, due to the anisotropy of the composite material, during the deployment phase complicated three-dimensional (3D) stress fields arise within a localized area of the structure [2,3] and these are rarely studied in the design phase.

In this work, a numerical model able to deal with the geometrical nonlinear analysis and the 3D stress state evaluation in deployable components is proposed. To obtain similar results, 3D finite elements can be employed as an alternative. However, the adoption of solid elements required would dramatically increase the computational costs, especially if nonlinear analyses are performed. For this reason, 2D elements are often recalled to catch the global nonlinear behaviour, but these models lack the ability to evaluate the out-of-plane stress components.

The solution proposed in this work is based on advanced mathematical models based on using the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF) [4]. CUF allows to build one-dimensional (1D) and 2D finite elements able to attribute a dedicated kinematic to each layer of the composite boom, in a layer-wise scenario. A similar approach was shown in [5,6,7] for the nonlinear analysis of tape-spring and TRAC booms. Moreover, CUF allows to build models with refined through-the-thickness expansion, able to evaluate both in-plane and out-of-plane stress components. This capability was exploited in [8] to evaluate the failure index on composite TRAC and tape-spring hinge booms in a global/local scenario. Here, the formulation is further extended to evaluate the failure index and 3D stress field during the folding and deployment phases in the nonlinear field.

REFERENCES

[1]      F. Royer and S. Pellegrino. Probing the stability of ladder-type coilable space structures. AIAA Journal, pages 1–13, 2022.

[2]      H. C. Kumar, V.and Dewangan, N. Sharma, and S. K. Panda. Numerical prediction of static and vibration responses of damaged (crack and delamination) laminated shell structure: An experimental verification. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 170:108883, 2022.

[3]      C. K. Hirwani, P. K. Mishra, and S. K. Panda. Nonlinear steady-state responses of weakly bonded composite shell structure under hygro-thermo-mechanical loading. Composite Structures, 265:113768, 2021.

[4]      E. Carrera, M. Cinefra, M. Petrolo, and E. Zappino. Finite element analysis of structures through unified formulation. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, 2014.

[5]      A. Pagani, E. Carrera, A. G. de Miguel, A. Hasanyan, S. Pellegrino, H. R. Narravula, E. Zappino, Efficient analysis of geometrically nonlinear deployable thin shell structures using Carrera unified formulation, 70th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Washington D.C., USA, 2019.

[6]      A. Pagani, E. Carrera, A. Hasanyan, and S. Pellegrino, Advanced simulation and testing of composite TRAC longerons, 71st International Astronautical Congress (IAC), IAC CyberSpace Edition, 2020.

[7]      A. Pagani, R. Augello and E. Carrera, Numerical simulation of deployable ultra-thin composite shell structures for space applications and comparison with experiments. Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, 1-13, 2022.

[8]      R. Augello, A. Pagani, E. Carrera, and D. A., Stress and Failure Onset Analysis of Thin Composite Deployables by Global/Local Approach. AIAA Journal, 1-13, 2022.

Presenting Author: Riccardo Augello Politecnico di Torino

Presenting Author Biography: Riccardo Augello is an Assistant Professor and a member of the MUL2 Lab in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of Politecnico di Torino (www.mul2.com). His current research activity deals with the nonlinear analysis of deployable space booms and membranes, of hyperelastic material and geometrical nonlinear analysis using advanced mathematical models with higher-order structural theories.

Authors:

Riccardo Augello Politecnico di Torino
Alfonso Pagani Politecnico di Torino
Erasmo Carrera Politecnico di Torino