CARBON FIBRE TUBE INSERTS –A LIGHT FASTENING CONCEPT WITH HIGH LOAD CARRYING CAPACITY

摘要

Carbon fibre tube inserts were at first developed by DLRfor the structure of the ROSETTA Lander. The particulardesign requirements and the mass budget constraints forthis spacecraft structure made it inevitable to look for anovel insert design with a better relation between insertweight and load carrying capacity than the conventionalinsert types use to have.The result was the concept of the carbon fibre tubeinsert, which is based upon an extremely stiff, thin-walledcarbon fibre tube which fits exactly between theface sheets of the sandwich plate. For implementation,this tube is foldable and spreadable in radial direction.Once implemented, the tube is bonded to the honeycombcore by a thin adhesive layer.Carbon fibre tube inserts exist in two basic versions:Type 1 replaces the classical through-the-thicknessinsert, while Type 2 replaces the 'blind' potted insertfor unilateral fixation. Both types were thoroughlyinvestigated in the course of an ESA study within theGSTP programme. The experimental and analyticalresults of this study are presented here.