Universitätsbibliothek
Weimar Open Access

Annemarie Herrmann

• Thin-walled cylindrical composite shell structures are often applied in aerospace for lighter and cheaper launcher transport system. These structures exhibit sensitivity to geometrical imperfection and are prone to buckling under axial compression. Today the design is based on NASA guidelines from the 1960’s [1] using a conservative lower bound curve embodying many experimental results of thatThin-walled cylindrical composite shell structures are often applied in aerospace for lighter and cheaper launcher transport system. These structures exhibit sensitivity to geometrical imperfection and are prone to buckling under axial compression. Today the design is based on NASA guidelines from the 1960’s [1] using a conservative lower bound curve embodying many experimental results of that time. It is well known that the advantages and different characteristics of composites as well as the evolution of manufacturing standards are not considered apporopriately in this outdated approach. The DESICOS project was initiated to provide new design guidelines regarding all the advantages of composites and allow further weight reduction of space structures by guaranteeing a more precise and robust design. Therefore it is necessary among other things to understand how a cutout with different dimensions affects the buckling load of a thin-walled cylindrical shell structure in combination with initial geometric imperfections. This work is intended to identify a ratio between the cutout characteristic dimension (in this case the cutout diameter) and the structure characteristic dimension (in this case the cylinder radius) that can be used to tell if the buckling structure is dominated by initial imperfections or is dominated by the cutout.…