Inflatable Structure: Development of a Recovery System

This paper gives an overview of the work that was performed by EADS Space Transportation (Company belonging to EADS Corporation -European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company-) in order to develop an inflatable Recovery System for a 50 Tons Mock Up that impacts on water at a maximal velocity of 17 m/s. This paper presents the major steps that have been achieved to design and justify this inflatable system of a new scale regarding size (40 m3), deployment duration (1.8s), and applied external loads (210 Tons). Materials are presented. Design methods, based on a dual approach combining analytical criteria and Finite Element models, used for this inflatable application are detailed. This system has been qualified in 2002 and is operational since 2003.