Link to Index Page

Double-walled spherical balloon with 15 modules of truss-like (slanted) webs over 90 degrees of meridian

This is Fig. 2 from the 2012 GENOPT paper, "Use of GENOPT and BIGBOSOR4 to obtain optimum designs of multi-walled inflatable spherical and cylindrical vacuum chambers", by David Bushnell and Charles Rankin, AIAA 53rd Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, 2012, AIAA Paper 2012-xxxx.

This slide shows the cross section of the double wall of the spherical vacuum chamber with truss-like (slanted) webs.

The pressure inside the inner wall is PINNER; the pressure outside the outer wall is POUTER; the pressure between the inner and outer walls is PMIDDL. PMIDDL > POUTER > PINNER.

The segments of the wall of thickness TFINNR and TFOUTR have little holes in them so that PMIDDL acts on both surfaces of them (no net pressure on them).

Buckling of and stress in this configuration are computed with use of the BIGBOSOR4 computer program.

The wall is optimized (minimum weight) with the use of the system of computer programs called “GENOPT/BIGBOSOR4” [Refs. 3 and 6 – 9 cited in the 2012 GENOPT paper]

See the GENOPT slide show for more slides on this subject.

Page 16 / 36