Numerous spacecraft designs exist for exploring the surfaces of planetary bodies and each have their own advantages and disadvantages. All successful landings have been made by stationary landers or wheeled rovers that rely on one-time use mechanisms, such as crushable aluminum honeycomb shock absorbers or inflatable airbags, to reduce shock loading to the spacecraft during landing. The stationary lander is the simplest type of lander, but can only take data from one location. Wheeled rovers add complexity in exchange for mobility to explore different locations. Rovers are limited by the terrain they can traverse; rovers becoming stuck have ended missions. In contrast to rovers and stationary landers, hoppers explore by making multiple launch and landing hops. They have the advantage of being able to avoid terrain that would cause a rover to become stuck. A hopper may require a landing shock absorber that can reliably operate multiple times in harsh environments. Most terrestrial shock absorbers use hydraulic fluid, allowing for compact and inexpensive devices. Hydraulics have been used in space applications, but require thermal controls to maintain the proper fluid viscosity. They also require dynamic seals which, in the case of a leak, can degrade performance, shorten mission life, and contaminate sensitive science equipment. Leakage is also a concern in pressurized systems in space because missions can take decades from when a system is installed to when it actually is used. To address these issues, a pressurized metal bellows shock absorber is proposed. This shock absorber could operate at nearly any expected spacecraft environment. Metal bellows are designed to operate from cryogenic temperatures to several hundred degrees Celsius. A hermetically sealed system eliminates the risks of a system with seals. Metal bellows are in common use for terrestrial harsh environments and vacuum applications. Small metal bellows are used as dampers for pressure control systems with small displacements. Models for the dynamics of this device are developed and presented here. Starting from the ideal gas law, polytropic compression, and compressible flow through an orifice, differential equations of motion and pressure are derived. These equations are nonlinear for the displacements under consideration and are nondimensionalized to help provide insight. Equations for static equilibrium, maximum initial displacement bounds, and estimated natural frequency are presented. Metal bellows can operate as a passive damper with a simple orifice between the control volumes. Optimization is performed for the nondimensional model of a passive damper. Because the response is highly nonlinear, a method is developed to estimate a damping coefficient that is used as the objective function for this optimization. Feasibility of this concept is investigated through an example design problem using data from a metal bellows manufacturer as constraints. An optimal mass configuration is found that meets the design constraints. Performance can be improved over the passive system by adding control. The first control strategy involves a check valve, such that the effective orifice size varies between compression and extension. The next control strategy replaces the orifice with a control valve. Varying the valve opening and closing timing can achieve optimal performance. Finally, using the metal bellows as an actuator to help launch the hopper is investigated. While the valve is closed, the gas in the second volume is compressed. Then the valve is opened the hopper is launched. The results of this research show that a metal bellows device holds promise as a landing shock absorber and launch actuator to extend the range of hopper spacecraft.

O comportamento estrutural de veículos de transporte coletivo, quando submetido a eventos de impacto, é de grande relevância na engenharia automobilística, pois principalmente o ônibus, vem se tornando um dos meios de transporte de elevada importância, sendo que seu uso vem aumentando a cada ano. No entanto, as estruturas de ônibus que circulam nas estradas brasileiras não são capazes de resistir, sem causar danos aos passageiros, a eventos de impacto em acidentes, o que pode ser verificado em pesquisas divulgadas pela Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres (ANTT) em 2007, que mostra a evolução de acidentes e vítimas envolvendo ônibus, que cada ano aumentam consideravelmente. Neste contexto, pretende-se desenvolver um absorvedor de impacto que aumente a capacidade de absorção da energia de impacto e evite a invasão da região de sobrevivência dos passageiros, e desta forma diminuindo o número de vítimas em acidentes. Serão abordados neste trabalho eventos de impacto semi-frontal, justificado pela gravidade dos acidentes desse tipo nas estradas, sendo este o tipo de acidente que deixa um maior número de vítimas, pois geralmente parte da estrutura lateral do ônibus é removida, expondo os passageiros no período de impacto. Esse efeito é conhecido como “Efeito Abridor de Latas”. O modelo numérico deste trabalho será formado por elementos unifilares, sendo a estrutura do ônibus formada por vigas flexíveis e/ ou rígidas, unidas através de juntas não lineares rotacionais e translacionais. A rigidez de cada junta não linear é obtida a partir de métodos analíticos que descrevem o comportamento do tubo de parede fina quando submetido a impacto. / The structural behavior of transportation vehicles when subjected to events of impact is of great relevance in automotive engineering, mainly because the bus has become a highly important alternative means of transportation, and its use is increasing every year. However, the structures of the buses circulating on Brazilian roads are not able to withstand strong impact, without causing passengers’ injury in events where accidents occur, which can be shown in surveys released by the National Transport Agency (ANTT) in 2007, presenting that the great incidence of accidents with victims involving buses is increasing considerably every year. In this context, the development of an impact absorber that had the capability to increase the impact energy absorption and prevent the invasion of part of bus on the region where passengers are located (reducing the number of fatalities in accidents) are the objectives of this work. In this work, a semi-frontal impact will be presented and studied due to the severity of such accident, as the side of the bus structure is removed, exposing the passengers during the impact. This is the effect known as “Can opener effect”. The numerical model of this study will consist of a single-wire element, with a bus structure formed by flexible and/or rigid beams joined by nonlinear rotational and translational joints. The rigidity of each nonlinear joint is obtained by analytical methods describing the behavior of a thin-walled tube subjected to an impact force.

O comportamento estrutural de veículos de transporte coletivo, quando submetido a eventos de impacto, é de grande relevância na engenharia automobilística, pois principalmente o ônibus, vem se tornando um dos meios de transporte de elevada importância, sendo que seu uso vem aumentando a cada ano. No entanto, as estruturas de ônibus que circulam nas estradas brasileiras não são capazes de resistir, sem causar danos aos passageiros, a eventos de impacto em acidentes, o que pode ser verificado em pesquisas divulgadas pela Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres (ANTT) em 2007, que mostra a evolução de acidentes e vítimas envolvendo ônibus, que cada ano aumentam consideravelmente. Neste contexto, pretende-se desenvolver um absorvedor de impacto que aumente a capacidade de absorção da energia de impacto e evite a invasão da região de sobrevivência dos passageiros, e desta forma diminuindo o número de vítimas em acidentes. Serão abordados neste trabalho eventos de impacto semi-frontal, justificado pela gravidade dos acidentes desse tipo nas estradas, sendo este o tipo de acidente que deixa um maior número de vítimas, pois geralmente parte da estrutura lateral do ônibus é removida, expondo os passageiros no período de impacto. Esse efeito é conhecido como “Efeito Abridor de Latas”. O modelo numérico deste trabalho será formado por elementos unifilares, sendo a estrutura do ônibus formada por vigas flexíveis e/ ou rígidas, unidas através de juntas não lineares rotacionais e translacionais. A rigidez de cada junta não linear é obtida a partir de métodos analíticos que descrevem o comportamento do tubo de parede fina quando submetido a impacto. / The structural behavior of transportation vehicles when subjected to events of impact is of great relevance in automotive engineering, mainly because the bus has become a highly important alternative means of transportation, and its use is increasing every year. However, the structures of the buses circulating on Brazilian roads are not able to withstand strong impact, without causing passengers’ injury in events where accidents occur, which can be shown in surveys released by the National Transport Agency (ANTT) in 2007, presenting that the great incidence of accidents with victims involving buses is increasing considerably every year. In this context, the development of an impact absorber that had the capability to increase the impact energy absorption and prevent the invasion of part of bus on the region where passengers are located (reducing the number of fatalities in accidents) are the objectives of this work. In this work, a semi-frontal impact will be presented and studied due to the severity of such accident, as the side of the bus structure is removed, exposing the passengers during the impact. This is the effect known as “Can opener effect”. The numerical model of this study will consist of a single-wire element, with a bus structure formed by flexible and/or rigid beams joined by nonlinear rotational and translational joints. The rigidity of each nonlinear joint is obtained by analytical methods describing the behavior of a thin-walled tube subjected to an impact force.

O comportamento estrutural de veículos de transporte coletivo, quando submetido a eventos de impacto, é de grande relevância na engenharia automobilística, pois principalmente o ônibus, vem se tornando um dos meios de transporte de elevada importância, sendo que seu uso vem aumentando a cada ano. No entanto, as estruturas de ônibus que circulam nas estradas brasileiras não são capazes de resistir, sem causar danos aos passageiros, a eventos de impacto em acidentes, o que pode ser verificado em pesquisas divulgadas pela Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres (ANTT) em 2007, que mostra a evolução de acidentes e vítimas envolvendo ônibus, que cada ano aumentam consideravelmente. Neste contexto, pretende-se desenvolver um absorvedor de impacto que aumente a capacidade de absorção da energia de impacto e evite a invasão da região de sobrevivência dos passageiros, e desta forma diminuindo o número de vítimas em acidentes. Serão abordados neste trabalho eventos de impacto semi-frontal, justificado pela gravidade dos acidentes desse tipo nas estradas, sendo este o tipo de acidente que deixa um maior número de vítimas, pois geralmente parte da estrutura lateral do ônibus é removida, expondo os passageiros no período de impacto. Esse efeito é conhecido como “Efeito Abridor de Latas”. O modelo numérico deste trabalho será formado por elementos unifilares, sendo a estrutura do ônibus formada por vigas flexíveis e/ ou rígidas, unidas através de juntas não lineares rotacionais e translacionais. A rigidez de cada junta não linear é obtida a partir de métodos analíticos que descrevem o comportamento do tubo de parede fina quando submetido a impacto. / The structural behavior of transportation vehicles when subjected to events of impact is of great relevance in automotive engineering, mainly because the bus has become a highly important alternative means of transportation, and its use is increasing every year. However, the structures of the buses circulating on Brazilian roads are not able to withstand strong impact, without causing passengers’ injury in events where accidents occur, which can be shown in surveys released by the National Transport Agency (ANTT) in 2007, presenting that the great incidence of accidents with victims involving buses is increasing considerably every year. In this context, the development of an impact absorber that had the capability to increase the impact energy absorption and prevent the invasion of part of bus on the region where passengers are located (reducing the number of fatalities in accidents) are the objectives of this work. In this work, a semi-frontal impact will be presented and studied due to the severity of such accident, as the side of the bus structure is removed, exposing the passengers during the impact. This is the effect known as “Can opener effect”. The numerical model of this study will consist of a single-wire element, with a bus structure formed by flexible and/or rigid beams joined by nonlinear rotational and translational joints. The rigidity of each nonlinear joint is obtained by analytical methods describing the behavior of a thin-walled tube subjected to an impact force.