STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF A MICROSATELLITE LAUNCHER VEHICLE SUBMITTED TO EXTERNAL PRESSURE

Resumo

The Brazilian Space Program has advanced in the development and production of microsatellite launch
vehicle (MLV) aiming at having self-sufficiency in sending satellites into space. Even though, the scientific
literature is scarce of works that present detailed results on this type of launcher vehicle. Therefore, this work
presents a structural analysis of a microsatellite launcher vehicle fairing manufactured by composite using a finite
element (FE) model. The FE model was submitted to external pressure obtained from two-dimensional fluid
dynamics simulations. A linear buckling simulation was performed to obtain the collapse pressure of the fairing
and to determine the thickness of the composite laminates. Then, a non-linear static simulation was performed to
obtain the progressive failure of the laminates using Hashin’s criterion. Tree different stacking sequence were
analyzed: [± 28 / 0 / 0]s , [90 / ± 554 / 90] and [± 655]. The failure to the structure was obtained by mapping the
pressure curve with the estimated thicknesses. Regarding the results, it was seen that the first buckling mode occurs
before the material failure in all the stacking sequence conditions.