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Buckling Test Results from the 8-Foot-Diameter Orthogrid-Stiffened Cylinder Test Article TA01

Results from the testing of cylinder test article SBKF-PZ-CYL-TAOl (referred to herein as
TAOI) are presented. TAOI was the first in a series of nine subscale 8-foot—diameter, integrally
stiffened cylindrical shells to be tested in the Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor project (SBKF)
test program. The test was conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), November
19—21, 2008. TAOl is an 8-foot-diameter (96-inches), 78.0-inch-long, aluminum—lithium (Al-Li),
orthogrid-stiffened cylindrical shell similar to those used in current state—of-the—art launch—
vehicle structures and was designed to exhibit global buckling when subjected to compression
loads. The primary objectives of this test were to verify the performance of the test facility, the
test procedures, and the test article design and analysis approach.
First, descriptions of the test article design, fabrication, and test are given in Section 2, and
modeling and analysis methods used in support of the test article design and testing activities are
described briefly in Section 3. Then, selected test results are presented and compared to pretest
predictions in Section 4, and concluding remarks are presented in Section 5. Finally, a complete
listing of all test and analysis data, data files and drawings is provided in Appendix A. The
listing includes archival directory names, file names, and file format descriptions. All references
used to support the test are also provided and include test article design drawings, test article
fabrication and test plans and procedures, and pretest analysis results.
Cylinder test article TAOl was designed by SBKF project researchers at NASA Langley
Research Center (LaRC) and was fabricated by the MSFC Metal Joining and Processing Branch
(EM32). The testing of TAOl occurred on November 19—21, 2008 at MSFC in Building 4619
Load Test Annex (LTA) under the direction of the Structural Strength Test Group (ET30). A
special-purpose test apparatus was designed and fabricated for this test effort. The test apparatus
was designed to apply up to 1.5 million pounds of force in axial compression and bending and
10 psi internal pressure. A multi—channel load control system was used to apply the test loads and
included load control and displacement control options. Traditional strain and displacement data
were obtained from 294 locations on the test article and full-field displacement data were
obtained on the test article outer mold line (OML) by using low-speed and high-speed digital
image correlation systems. This section gives a brief overview of the test objectives, test article,
instrumentation, test facility, and test load cases. Additional details on the testing of TAOl can be
found in the test plan and test procedure (Refs. 1 and 2).