Predicting residual service life of sandwich composites for reusable space vehicles

In this project a service life of a potentially reusable components of space vehicles made of sandwich structures (carbon-fibre reinforced plastics in combination of aluminium honeycomb) will be addressed. This lightweight material combination is selected for the project, because it was much less studied in the past when compared to the space-approved metallic alloys. Besides, it is the basic material choice for the space vehicle’s fairings as well as rocket fins that are crucial for guiding the space vehicles. The main idea of this project is to develop a coupled numerical experimental methodology for predicting the maiden and residual service life of sandwich composites when exposed to regular launch cycle(s) and exceptional events during the mission (e.g. particle impact). To do that the following challenges need to be solved: – Determination of a representative thermo-mechanical loading spectrum for a space mission; – Designing of an accelerated fatigue testing procedure as this is one of the main drivers affecting the service life of the structure; – Validating the experimental and numerical procedures that are used for estimating the service life of space vehicles and supplementing them for the purpose of estimating the service life of reusable space vehicles with/without damaged components.