ABSTRACT
H. Köke, L. Weiß & C. Hühne Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems, DLR German Aerospace Center, Braunschweig Germany
ABSTRACT: This paper presents a detailed comparison of the optimization results for distinctive rocket interstage design concepts. The complex cylindrical grid structure has to withstand the mission loads while being as light as possible. For the efficient use of the superior material properties, carbon fiber reinforced plastics are combined with a foam core to form a sandwich configuration. To minimize the total mass, parametric finite element models are used within a constrained, mixed-integer optimization. An optimization framework, incorporating the CAE software Ansys into the multi-purpose optimization package pyOpt, is presented. As manufacturability is an important design requirement, a winding process is represented by constraints in the parameter set of the geometry. The impact of the governing geometry, material parameters and hence their influences on the optimization problem are carefully reviewed.
