At the moment I am performing some very basic FEM analysis on the pressure hull of Tycho Deep Space-II, to validate aluminum as a replacement for plain carbon steel.
The actual design is far from known but so far Claus Nørregaard and I continue with these simple rules for the pressure hull:
- Bottom capsule diameter 1600 mm
- 4 internal main structures
- Dished ends in bottom and top
The analysis being made is only on the actual pressure hull and nothing else. It is merely to start somewhere and to validate the performance of the pressure hull during these events and cases:
- 1 bar delta internal pressure
- Structure behavior during launch when holding a 500 kg LES tower (LES mass really unknown at this point)
- Structure behavior during splash down.
For readers not familiar with FEM (Finite Element Method) is it important to know that the deformation shown is enlarged (app 50 times) to visualize the result. It is not the actual deformation.
So far our starting point looks quite promising but I am sure that we will add more internal structures and change the general height and cone angle when more FEM has been made. The CAD procession and analysis is being done with sponsored SolidWorks and you can download the basic file of the capsule here.
Back to work...
Ad Astra
Kristian von Bengtson
