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Christopher E. Volle

Publications and source records attributed to Christopher E. Volle.

3 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Corrugated Rollable Tubular Booms

A promising candidate for a new class of deployable composite boom is the COrrugated ROllable TUbular Boom (COROTUB), which is to be employed on future large space structures by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This is due to its two corrugated thin-shells forming a closed-section,which yields high bending and torsion stiffness, allowing for high dimensional stability. The corrugation geometry that dictates the boom cross-section shape is completely defined by closed-form analytical equations given a set of key input parameters available to the designer. Parametric studies changing two geometric variables are used to evaluate which parameters most influence the cross-section’s area moment of inertia and torsional constant. The number of corrugations, flattened height of the boom, and concave and convex corrugation radii are varied to study the complete boom design space. Deeper corrugations increase the local buckling loads (crimpling) of the thin-shell boom but reduce the area moment of inertia and therefore the global Euler buckling load of the compressive member,and thus a fine balance is sought. Finite element analyses of pure bending and compression load cases for 1.22 m boom specimens were carried out to study this design trade-off in detail. Based on previous work, several thin-ply composite laminates have been selected for the different shells that form the cross-section. Feasible boom designs with a maximized stiffness and load-carrying capacity will be manufactured to study their rollability and for experimental characterization. Structural characterization tests and additional numerical analyses will provide guidelines towards future corrugated boom designs and adequate boundary conditions to maximize the boom bending strength.

Deployable Booms↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Rollable Corrugated Tubular Booms

A promising candidate for a new class of deployable composite boom is the COrrugated ROllable TUbular Boom (COROTUB), which is to be employed on future large space structures by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The COROTUB’s two corrugated thin shells form a closed section, which yields high bending and torsional stiffness, allowing for high dimensional stability. The corrugation geometry that dictates the boom cross-section shape was completely defined by closed-form analytical equations given a set of key design parameters. Parametric studies of two geometric variables were used to evaluate which parameters most influence the cross-section’s area moment of inertia and torsional constant. The number of corrugations, flattened height of the boom, and concave and convex corrugation radii were varied to study the complete boom design space. Deeper corrugations increased the local buckling (crimpling) loads of the thin-shell boom but reduced the area moment of inertia and therefore the global buckling load of the beam-column member, and thus a fine balance was sought. Finite element analyses of pure bending and compression load cases for short, 1.22-m-long fully-deployed booms ofeither the same size (flattened height) or similar inertia properties, were first carried out to efficiently study this design trade-off in detail.A second computational study evaluated the boom transition shape and the structural response of a 6-m-long partially-deployed boom, where the effects of partially bracing the root of the boom were also assessed. It was found that bracing length could greatly affect the strength and stiffness of this boom.Bracing type (as in the discrete number of clamps at the root) had no effect on stiffness, but particularly impacted strength for loading cases and boundary conditions that promoted the onset of local web buckling at the root. The corrugated designs were also found to improve, by as much as 20%, the boom bending and axial strength and boom transition length from flat to deployed when compared to a state-of-the-art boom alternative of the same size, for short bracing distances, such as those that would be required by small satellite applications. In addition, they showed a comparable structural response for longer bracing supports.

Booms↗