The CubeSat Program has provided access to space for many universities, private companies, and government institutions primarily due to the low cost of CubeSat satellite development. While these costs are orders of magnitude lower than similarly capable nano-satellite missions, they are still outside of the budgetary constraints of many potential developers including university and high school clubs. Using 3D printed plastics in the production of CubeSat structures and mechanisms presents a large cost savings opportunity that will allow these institutions to participate in the development of these satellites, expanding the educational and scientific impact of the CubeSat Program. Five rapid prototype plastics manufactured with four different 3D printing technologies were studied to determine their survivability when subjected to the required vibration testing and thermal bakeout that all CubeSats are must pass through before integration and launch. ASTM D638 Type V tensile bar samples of each plastic were procured and subjected to a thermal bakeout and tensile testing to determine the thermal and outgassing effects on their mechanical properties. This information was used to design a concept structure for use in a low budget CubeSat mission. Finite Element Analysis in Abaqus was then utilized to test the integrity of this structure under a worst case load condition derived from the ELaNa 6 launch vibration profile. Results from the analysis show that Objet FullCure720 photopolymer resin, DSM Somos Prototherm 12120 photopolymer resin, and Windform XT carbon fiber filled nylon all provide adequate strength to survive the environmental testing conditions required for this system to proceed through flight integration and launch.

This thesis will present the experimental and numerical analysis of composite sandwich structures under monotonic and fatigue loading. The sandwich skins were made of fiberglass and the core used was a closed cell PVC foam. Initial delaminations were introduced into the sandwich structures during manufacturing to see the effect of delamination size on the ultimate strength and monotonic fracture. Fiberglass rods, called shear keys, added to the foam core to determine whether or not they increased the strength of the test specimens. Furthermore, shear key locations were also varied and their effects noted. The fixed rate static behavior for all of the above cases listed were determined. The fatigue life and behavior were determined for sandwich structures with no initial delamination, 0.5 inch initial delamination, and 0.5 inch initial delamination with a shear key 0 inch from the delamination depth. The fatigue specimens were tested at various percentages of the ultimate monotonic failure loads to determine the fatigue life. A static numerical analysis was performed using Abaqus/CAE 6.7.1 to observe at the monotonic behavior of the test specimens with no initial delamination and with 0.5 inch initial delamination. The sandwich structures with an initial delamination and/or a shear key in the foam core experienced over a 70% reduction in the ultimate monotonic failure load. The two delamination lengths had no significant effect on the ultimate monotonic failure load, but the presence of an initial delamination corresponded to a material response dominated by plastic behavior. The experimental testing also showed that the location of the shear key in the sandwich structure had little effect on the monotonic strength, but moving the shear keys further away from the back edge of the delamination caused a reduction in strength. The monotonic testing determined that composite sandwich structures containing shear keys had approximately a 7% reduction in the monotonic failure load of test specimens with an initial delamination. Numerical analysis results matched the ultimate failure loads within 5% for the test specimens with a 0.5 inch an initial delamination and within 15% for the test specimens with no initial delamination. The fatigue testing showed that sandwich structures containing shear keys had life reduction of approximately 33%. Preliminary experiments involved with rotating the shear keys 90° showed increased ultimate monotonic failure loads of the composite sandwich structures by as much as 30%. Future funding and research would be necessary to verify the increased structural performance of the newly oriented shear keys.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 129-136.

Thesis (MTech (Mech. Eng.))--Peninsula Technikon, 1999. / Word processed copy. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75). Also available online.

As the use of fiber-reinforced composites has increased over the decades, so has the need to understand the complexity of their failure mechanisms as engineers seek to improve the damage tolerance of composite laminated structures. One of the most prevalent and limiting mode of failure within composite laminates is delamination, since it not only reduces a structures stiffness and strength, but can be very difficult to detect without the use of special non-destructive equipment. Industry testing organizations have utilized several fracture tests in order to characterize the fracture toughness of composite materials under different loading conditions. For this research, ASTM D5528, ASTM D7905 & 4ENF tests were performed to evaluate the fracture resistance of uni-directional pre-preg laminates; the 4ENF was used to compare its effectiveness as to ASTM D7905. Finite element methods such as the use of cohesive elements have been developed to simulate delamination within composite laminates. While there has been much work in evaluating the effectiveness of cohesive elements, very little exists within literature as to studying the success of cohesive surface contact for accurately modeling coupon level fracture testing. Cohesive contact interaction in Abaqus/Standard was used to simulate the mode I double cantilever beam (DCB) experiment of ASTM D5528. Cohesive contact was found to accurately and efficiently model DCB testing as the critical load- displacement values and steady state fracture agreed with experimental data. A parametric study was performed and found that cohesive contact was less sensitive in varying key model parameters than that commonly expected of cohesive elements.

The Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD) has undergone a series of revisions over the years. The latest revision, described in this Master’s Thesis, incorporates new capabilities like EMI shielding, an inert gas purge system, and an electrical interface to the CubeSats after they are integrated into the P-POD. Additionally, some mass reduction modifications are made to the P-POD, while its overall strength is increased. The P-POD inert gas purge system successfully flew, on a previous revision P-POD. The P-POD components are analyzed to a set of dynamic loads for qualification, and successfully undergoes random vibration qualification testing. The P-POD encounters some problems in thermal vacuum cycling qualification and EMI testing, but there is evidence that the issues can be mitigated. A path forward is laid out to complete both sets of testing.

Composite materials have increasingly been used as an alternative to metals and other isotropic materials for primary structural components in aerospace industries. Unlike traditional isotropic materials, composite materials are known to have complex internal microstructures. Therefore, it is essential to develop methods for the inspection, evaluation, and monitoring of composite materials. Ultrasonic-guided waves and, more precisely, Lamb waves have proven to be an efficient and accurate technique for the non-destructive testing. Since guided waves are dispersive and multimodal, it is important to develop a practical method to manipulate Lamb waves to achieve better structural health monitoring and non-destructive inspection results. There are minimal studies involving manipulating guided waves for the inspection of composite materials. Moreover, the currently proposed methods to manipulate Lamb waves are complex and costly. The objective of this dissertation research is to offer practical and straightforward methods with a simple design to control Lamb waves using additively manufactured lenses used as superstrates on composite plates. This dissertation is organized in three major parts. Part I focuses on the Lamb wave propagation in composite plates with different lay-up and plate orientations. Finite element simulations were performed to investigate the behavior of Lamb wave propagation in different plates. A semi-finite element approach was used to derive the dispersive curves in each plate. In Part II, a lap-joint study was conducted to investigate the interaction of Lamb waves in the lap joint regions. Two different lap joints were considered, composite-aluminum and composite-plastic. In each lap joint the thickness of the top surface (aluminum or plastic) is continuously increased. In Part III, additively manufactured lenses are designed to modulate the wavefront of Lamb waves in thick composite plates. The first design is a prism-shaped lens proposed to steer Lamb waves to a targeted direction. Multiple prism designs are considered to offer a flexible steering direction by either changing the prism thickness or the wedge angle. The second design is a plano-concave shaped lens designed to focus the Lamb wave at a targeted focal point. This dissertation research will provide a clear understanding of Lamb wave propagation in anisotropic material, anisotropic-isotropic lap joints, and wavefront modulation on anisotropic material using additively manufactured lenses. This approach contributes to the development of better quality SHM for online monitoring systems.

Composites have high strength-to-weight ratios, which is particularly desired for applications with weight restrictions. Common composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CF) and fiber glass reinforced plastic (FG) were used in this research. While composite materials possess high stiffness and strength properties, the stiffness of composite laminates may be maximized by changing the geometry. By adding corrugations, the flexural stiffness is increased in one direction compared to the stiffness of a flat part with the same amount of material. Thus, stiffness increases without a change in weight. The primary goal of this research was to investigate the stiffness characteristics of corrugated composite laminates under tensile and flexural load. The chosen corrugation geometry for investigation was a trapezoid. To observe the effects of corrugations, both flat and corrugated coupons were tested experimentally with the same procedures. Stiffness was calculated experimentally, analytically, and numerically in both directions. In this study, the longitudinal direction was defined as perpendicular to the corrugations and transverse direction was defined as the direction along the corrugations. The effects on stiffnesses of corrugated and flat composites were measured by comparing changes to the stiffness ratios in tension and bending. The stiffness ratio is the ratio of longitudinal stiffness to transverse stiffness. The secondary aim of this research was to compare the corrugation effects on FG weave and cross-ply CF. This was interesting to observe the difference in corrugation effects on different composite materials. The FG laminates were manufactured from four plies of pre-impregnated Cytec MXB 7701/7781. The CF laminate consisted of five plies of pre-impregnated unidirectional Tencate TC250/M46J. The layup orientation of the CF laminate had alternating 0◦ and 90◦ plies, where the 0 ◦ plies were in the transverse direction. Plies were directly laid on a flat plate and aluminum mold for flat and corrugated specimens, respectively. All flat and corrugated composites were cured in an autoclave under respective recommended cure cycles for each material. The tension and three-point bend tests were conducted on an Instron 8800 where the load was applied at a rate of 0.05 inches per minute. The tensile ultimate load was the same between corrugated and flat specimens in the longitudinal direction. Meanwhile, the tensile ultimate load was greatly reduced for corrugated specimens in the transverse direction when compared to the flat specimens. Thus, corrugations had a larger impact in the transverse direction under tensile load for both materials. By corrugating the composite layups, the ratio of stiffness in the longitudinal to extensional direction increases. For FG test coupons, the extensional stiffness ratio was increased from 1.0 to 49.3 due to corrugations. The flexural stiffness ratio was increased from 0.3 to 187.1 in corrugated FG coupons. For CF test coupons, the extensional stiffness ratio increased from 0.7 to 61.3. The flexural stiffness ratio of CF test coupons increased from 0.3 to 81.4. Corrugations had a greater effect on the cross-ply CF for both extensional and flexural stiffnesses.

Hybrid rocket propulsion technology shows promise for the next generation of sounding rockets and small launch vehicles. This paper seeks to provide details on the process of developing hybrid propulsion systems to the academic and amateur rocket communities to assist in future research and development. Scaling hybrid rocket motors for use in sounding rockets has been a challenge due to the inadequacies in traditional boundary layer analysis. Similarity scaling is an amendment to traditional boundary layer analysis which is helpful in removing some of the past scaling challenges. Maintaining geometric similarity, oxidizer and fuel similarity and mass flow rate to port diameter similarity are the most important scaling parameters. Advances in composite technologies have also increased the performance through weight reduction of sounding rockets through and launch vehicles. Technologies such as Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPV) for use as fuel and oxidizer tanks on rockets promise great advantages in flight performance and manufacturing cost. A small scale COPV, carbon fiber ablative nozzle and a N class hybrid rocket motor were developed, manufactured and tested to support the use of these techniques in future sounding rocket development. The COPV exhibited failure within 5% of the predicted pressure and the scale motor testing was useful in identifying a number of improvements needed for future scaling work. The author learned that small scale testing is an essential step in the process of developing hybrid propulsion systems and that ablative nozzle manufacturing techniques are difficult to develop. This project has primarily provided a framework for others to build upon in the quest for a method to easily develop hybrid propulsion systems sounding rockets and launch vehicles.

The purpose of this study is to develop an analytical solution for modal analysis of actively damped orthotropic composite plates in bending and to verify it with experimental analysis. The analytical modal analysis solution for composite plate dynamics is derived using Euler theory. This analysis applies to structures with orthotropic lamina of uniform material properties at any lamination angle. The bending-extensional coupling can be neglected for plates that are symmetric or approximately symmetric, which allows an exact solution for natural frequency and mode shape to be obtained. An exact solution can be found for natural vibration and in general. The active control is modeled analytically by combining the Lagrange equation with the Ritz Assumed Mode method. This analysis produces a generalized coordinate vector that correlates the assumed mode to the particular amplitude of a particular case. The kinetic energy dissipated by the piezoelectric actuator from the system over one oscillation can be calculated from the generalized coordinate vector and the assumed mode. The equivalent damping ratio of the active control system is calculated as the ratio between the kinetic energy absorbed by the piezoelectric actuator from the system in one oscillation and the maximum strain energy of the system during that oscillation. A point mass on the plate, such as an accelerometer mass, can also be modeled as a single layer of uniform mass, that is an isotropic layer, by equating the potential energy of the point mass with the potential energy of the uniform mass layer. It is important to note that the mass of the isotropic layer is frequency dependent, and it has no effect on the plate stiffness. The analytical model is validated by comparison to experimental work. The samples studied were aluminum and composite plates of various lengths. The active control predictions were also validated using previous experimental work completed at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. These cases included active control of an aluminum beam with a patch of piezoelectric material and an aluminum sailplane with a patch of piezoelectric material. Results indicate that while the analytical mode solutions are in good agreement with the experimental results, they are also systematically higher than the experimental results. The analytical active control solutions match previous work when the piezoelectric effects are linear. The main result of adding an active control system is approximately a 5-10% increase in modal frequencies and a 200-800% increase of damping ratio.