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Completed TRL 3 (started at 3, targeting 6)
Generative design is touted to greatly reduce time spent iterating on design and analysis, and to produce higher performing structures than traditional designs. It is the aim of this proposal to explore those features by designing and building a performance optimized interstage to enable mesospheric launch capability in the context of a sounding rocket vehicle development process. By selecting a small-scale component this also allows for incorporating the additive manufacturing process and a subsequent qualification of this structure. In addition to the additively manufactured prototype, a design report will be delivered at the completion of this project to document the findings of the generative design process, additive manufacturing techniques, and qualification test effort.
The design approach of this interstage is a low risk / high reward opportunity of a primary structure to determine how the generative design process may fit within the current framework of sounding rocket vehicle design analysis cycle. Given the rapid development for sounding rocket class vehicles, it is of interest if the generative design techniques can improve the efficiency of these types of structures overall, and if so to what degree. Based on the outcome of this project, it would then be beneficial to know if the generative design technique could be scaled to larger sounding rocket launch vehicle structures, and what cost and performance trades could be evaluated.
The weight savings gained from the generative design approach are two-fold, in both increasing vehicle apogee as well as vehicle stability. Based on information from code 550, structures can benefit from an improvement of performance in the 2X-4X range (mass/stiffness/strength) using the generative design process. The design process of this structure will help us evaluate if similar improvements can be made in primary structures of a suborbital sounding rocket platform, something that has not been accomplished within the Sounding Rocket Program yet.
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