Date of Award:

12-2011

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Thomas Fronk

Committee

Thomas Fronk

Committee

Steven Folkman

Committee

Barton Smith

Abstract

Because lowering weight as much as possible is desirable in all applications designed to go to space, the use of composite materials is desirable. Composites are materials that are made up of two or more separate materials usually with significantly different characteristics which remain separate and distinct in their completed state. Fiber-reinforced epoxy composites, in general, are very strong and light. Because most space structures cannot solely be made of composites, a method to join them with metals is needed. Adhesive joining, or gluing, has been determined to be the most promising option.

For the joining technique to be used, engineers must be able to predict how the joined materials will behave when placed under load and/or temperature change. A widely used modeling technique used today is finite element analysis. Finite element analysis is a modeling method that can be run on computers to predict the displacement of specified points of the part or structure being modeled.

In order for the model to be trusted, physical measurements were taken and compared to the models predictions. The model was found to agree with the measured data under both traditional force loading and when the joined materials underwent a temperature change. This result allows the model to be used with confidence by engineers to build space structures.

Checksum

60f86c955958033bb6a25825c6ae30da

Comments

Publication made available electronically December 21, 2011.

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