APPLICATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR EUROSTAR CENTRAL TUBE

摘要

The development of new manufacturing technologiesallows the definition of new structural concepts and theimprovement of existing ones. In case of existingconcepts, the time to manufacture them and the materialutilization (scrap reduction) can be improved.The use of automated manufacturing technologiesallows for a real optimisation of the composite lay-ups(piles orientation is controlled), a simulation of themanufacturing process, and a recording of the actualconfiguration of the manufactured lay-up.The development of the new central tube of the Eurostar3000 LX is a practical application of these newtechnologies. Fibre placement technique is used tomanufacture in a single piece the cone-cylinder shell.Monolithic construction is selected for the shell, with athoroidally shaped cone-cylinder transition. The lay-upconfiguration is tailored (piles orientation, totalthickness …) along the monolithic shell.An additional challenge in the development of thisstructure is that it should replace an existing sandwichconfiguration with no impact on the rest of the satellitestructure components, so the qualification of thesecomponents is not questioned. This has obliged to theuse of the complete mathematical model of the satellitefor the definition of the central tube, to assess theimpact of any modification on the central tube design onthe rest of the satellite (interface force …).This new central tube concept development is supportedby an exhaustive development test campaign intended tovalidate the local details of the proposed design. Thefinal qualification will be acquired with a full-scalestatic test of the central tube and verification at satellitelevel to be performed by EADS Astrium.Using as an example the central tube of the Eurostar3000 LX platform, this paper presents the improvementsderived from the use of the new design andmanufacturing technologies for the production ofcomposite structures. Even when designing structuralconcepts to replace existing ones, these improvementsare noteworthy.