EVALUATION OF A METAL SHEAR WEB SELECTIVELY REINFORCED WITH FILAMENTARY COMPOSITES FOR SPACE SHUTTLE APPLICATION PHASEⅠSUMMARY REPORT – SHEAR WEB DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

摘要

An advanced composite shear web design concept has been developed for the Space Shuttle orbiter main engine thrust beam structure. Various web concepts were synthesized by a computer-aided adaptive random search procedure. A practical concept is identified having a titanium-clad +45º boron/epoxy web plate with vertical boron/epoxy reinforced aluminum stiffeners. The boron-epoxy laminate contributes to the strength and stiffness efficiency of the basic web section. The titanium-cladding functions to protect the polymeric laminate parts from damaging environments and is chem.-milled to provide reinforcement in selected areas. Detailed design drawings are presented for both boron/epoxy reinforced and all-metal shear webs. The weight saving offered is 24% relative to all-metal construction at an attractive cost per pound of weight saved, based on the detailed designs. Small scale element tests substantiate the boron/ epoxy reinforced design details in critical areas. The results show that the titanium-cladding reliably reinforces the web laminate in critical edge load transfer and stiffener fastener hole areas.