Pressure Vessel Design

NASA Hyper-X Vehicle

Angeles Crest Engineering Inc (ACEI) designs metallic propellant tanks and composite over-wrapped pressure vessels, including lightweight flight pressure vessels per requirements of applicable NASA, ASME, and Military Standards. ACEI designs satisfy ANSI AIAA S-080 and S-081, MIL-STD 1522A and conform to the US Airforce range safety document EWR 127-1. ACEI designs tanks and pressurized components for unique operating conditions that include extreme temperatures and environments, corrosive and hazardous contents, and severe loading that can cause low and high cycle fatigue.

ACEI performs linear and nonlinear stress analyses using MSC Nastran finite element programs for the design of pressure vessels for spacecraft and launch vehicle applications. Advanced dynamic tools such as random vibration analyses are also used to verify the adequacy of the design for flight and qualification test loads. Since flight pressure vessels are categorized as fracture critical, ACEI performs fracture mechanics and fatigue analyses that meet MIL-STD 1522A requirements using NASGRO (NASA/FLAGRO) and other in-house software.

ACEI has developed advanced integrated-tank-bus designs to enable weight and cost savings. This is different to the traditional approach of dropping the tank into a spacecraft bus to be supported using struts, tabs, skirts, and flexures where both local strengthening of the tank and bus are required. Alternatively, an all-metal tank or a composite over-wrapped tank with a metal liner may be structurally integrated to a bus structure such that the stiffness of the bus and tank act in unison. A key aspect of this approach is that bus-tank structure has to be designed, analyzed, and tested as an integrated structural sub-assembly.

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