Design and analysis of aluminum alloy-rigid polyurethane foam-cored common bulkhead for cryogenic tanks

By using a sandwich construction that consists of aluminum alloy panels-rigid polyurethane foam, a common bulkhead was devised for cryogenic launch vehicle tanks. The common bulkhead has the characteristics of lightweight, easy to manufacture, and integrated load bearing/thermal insulation. Based on numerical simulations, thermal insulation effect, structural stability and thermal-mechanical coupling behavior of the common bulkhead were analyzed. The results show that the common bulkhead not only satisfies the thermal insulation requirements of cryogenic tanks for liquid hydrogen and oxygen, but also keeps structural stability under a differential pressure of 0.342 MPa and material safety with a pressure of 0.5 MPa. The design and analysis of this structure can provide technical support for the design of new cryogenic tanks with a common bulkhead.