Design trade study on composite sandwich cryogenic pressure vessels

Composite materials application to cryogenic propellant tanks wo uld be one of the most important technological challenges when aiming to establish Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) space transportation systems. However, as recognized through the previous efforts and failures such as the X-33 experimental vehicle by the United States, many technological barriers still remain mainly due to the cryogenic brittleness of resin systems and severe thermal environments before establishing high reliability space structures. In this study, various structural configurations particularly focused on the sandwich structures are examined based on the system requirements of cryogenic propellant tank for reusable launch vehicle and as a result, a special kind of honeycomb sandwich structure is proposed as the most preferable configuration for this kind of application.