Preliminary Structural Sizing of the Hat Stiffened, Corrugated, and Fluted Panel Concepts for ARES V Vehicle Shroud

This paper presents the results of the preliminary structural sizing of the payload shroud for the ARES V heavy lift vehicle. The considered payload shroud will serve as a shield for the Altair Lunar Lander as well as for other payloads during the future missions. The sizing considers discrete ply lay-ups of IM7/977-3 graphite epoxy composite with pristine material characteristics. Three types of architectures were considered in this study: hat stiffened, corrugated, and fluted panel. The results present preliminary sizing mass comparison between these three panel types. It should be noted that since structural details, such as penetration buildups, were ignored for sizing convenience, the presented masses are not final, and therefore, they are viewed in terms of a relative comparison rather than in an absolute sense.