Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology

26 - 28 June 2008, Bangalore, India

INCAST 2008 - IT10

COMPOSITES FOR MISSILE AND SOME AIRCRAFT APPLICATIONS

G. BALASUBRAHMANYAM,
Associate Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad 500 058

EXTENDED ABSTRACT

Composites have found extensive applications in Aerospace area mainly

because of their high specific strength and stiffness properties which in-turn have
offered substantial weight saving and improved performance. In line with this concept
number of Composite Products have been successfully developed at Advanced
Systems Laboratory for various Missile Programmes such as Re-Entry Vehicle
Structures, Rocket Motor Casings, Canisters, Ablative Components, Flex Nozzles, Jet
Deflectors etc., and also some Aircraft components such as Radomes, Brake Discs
and Drop Tanks for Light Combat Aircraft. This paper deals with some of the details
regarding design, development and qualification testing of above composite products.
Further aim of this paper is to highlight solutions to some of the difficult areas
encountered during above development work. All these components have met the
requirements fully during ground and flight tests.

1.

RE-ENTRY VEHICLE STRUCTURE

Re-Entry Vehicle Structure, consisting of a nosetip and conical sections is the

pay load for the mission and thus becomes a highly critical structure.

This is

subjected to severe aerothermal environment during Re-entry Phase of Flight and its
performance governs the Vehicle accuracy and survival to a large extent. Excessive
erosion occurring on nosetip and other parts can effect Vehicle stability and
asymmetric erosion on these parts will generate control problems. Another significant
performance requirement is inside temperature of the structure should not rise beyond
60o C for smooth functioning of the electronic components placed inside. In order to
satisfy above requirements, nosetip is made out of Carbon-Carbon (C-C) material
using 4D-Preform structure. The 4-D structure offers quasi isotropic properties in a
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Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology

26 - 28 June 2008, Bangalore, India

plane perpendicular to the Missile Axis, to have almost uniform erosion. Coming to
conical sections, two layer composite construction is employed to satisfy the two main
functional
requirements. The inner Carbon-Epoxy layer out of CNC filament winding takes care
of structural loads and the outer Carbon-Phenolic layer using tape winding satisfies
the thermal protection requirements.
Regarding design aspects, initially thermal analysis is carried out to determine
theoretically the temperature distribution and surface ablation for each component.
The problem is basically that of heat transfer in a solid domain with time dependent
heat flux at the outer surface and temperature dependent material properties. The
shape change due to ablation of surface adds complexity to the problem. A computer
code is developed for heat transfer calculations with convective boundary where
reaction occurs and 2-D ablation model using finite elements in space and finite
difference approximation in the time domain. Further FEM analysis, using ANSYS
package, is carried out for the following cases:(i)

Static analysis for zero and non-zero angle of attack conditions.

(ii)

Free vibration analysis for natural frequencies and mode shapes.

(iii)

Forced vibration analysis for stage separation amplification factor.

(iv)

Cut-out analysis for stress concentration and reinforcement requirements.

(v)

Buckling analysis against axial compression, external pressure and thermal

loads.
It is essential to have safer margins in all the above cases for the finalized

design parameters.

2.

CANISTERS

Canisters are used for storage, transportation, handling and launch of Missiles.
This forms an essential requirement of modern Missiles where the launcher has to be
highly mobile to minimize enemy threat. Different types of launch platforms such as
ground, ship and sub-marine are considered for usage and the sub-marine launch

Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology

26 - 28 June 2008, Bangalore, India

becomes critical design consideration if same canister has to be used for all platforms.
It consists of a long Composite cylindrical tube with a metallic dome at the bottom and
a short metallic cylinder in the front. Critical area of Canister development turns out to
be leak proof joint between metal and composite portions of the tube. The joint not
only experiences large direct stresses, but also is subjected to large stresses due to
stiffness mis-match between the metallic and composite shells in both hoop and
longitudinal directions. Basically two types of joint concepts, namely, radial joint and
axial joint are tried out simultaneously to arrive at a positive conclusion. The axial joint
configuration certainly provides more effective hermetical sealing.

However, it

requires a minimum thickness of shell to accommodate axial fasteners. On the other

hand, for radial joint there is no thickness limitation.
The composite cylinder consists of four layers. The inner most layer is the
thermal protection layer against gas generator combustion gases. The second layers
is the impervious leak proof layer. The third layer is the structural layer and the outer
most fourth layer is the fire protection layer against external fire in the vicinity of
platform. The two inner most layers do not contribute to the strength of the Canister.
However, the fire protection layer, because of different construction with fire resistant
properties, will have lower strength properties.
The Principle Load cases for which a Canister has to be designed are:
1)

Launch Load

2)

Emergency Dive Load

3)

Transportation and Handling Loads

The Missile is launched by firing gas generator housed at the bottom

dome of the Canister. The pressure of the gas generator will act in the volume below
the bottom of the Missile. Since the Missile will move with time, the volume and
corresponding height of the canister over which the pressure acts will also depend on
time. Simultaneously, reaction from Missile shoes act on the Canister as concentrated
load. This depends on the launch conditions, like angle of launch, vibration of the
platform in case of surface launch, hydrodynamic pressure in case of sub-marine
launch.

Thus, at any instant of time, gas generator pressure act on part of the

Canister and shoe reactions at appropriate locations.

Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology

26 - 28 June 2008, Bangalore, India

Emergency Dive situation arises in a sub-marine launched Missile when the

sub-marine has to dive to maximum depth without closing the container lid due to
some emergency. In this case, hydrostatic pressure corresponding to the depth of the
sub-marine acts on the Canister.
The first layer is made by Tape Winding of 100 mm width carbon-phenolic
prepreg tape using a pressure roller for consolidation and staggering of joints. The
second layer is fabricated using 100 mm width polyester flimsy tape by tape lay-up
and subsequent consolidation with hoop winding. The structural layer is made by
CNC filament winding using Prepreg Rovings for helical and hoop thicknesses. The
fourth layer is again tape wound using 100 mm width glass epoxy fabric prepreg.
Further, number of tests are carried-out at ground level to check the Canister for all
loading conditions before going for Flight Test.

3.

CARBON-CARBON BRAKE DISCS

Carbon Carbon Composites are the state-of-the-art materials for aircraft Brake
Discs. All most all the fighter and passenger aircrafts are using Carbon Carbon Brake
Discs in view of significant weight savings and cost with respect to landing per
overhaul (LPO) over the conventional metallic discs with ceramic pads. Higher levels
of heat absorption per unit mass is feasible with Carbon Carbon Brake Discs. Aircraft
Brake Discs have to absorb tremendous amount of heat energy generated in the
process of braking action due to friction between the rotors and stators.
The fibre architecture and the matrix micro structure have to be suitably
selected to meet the thermo-structural and tri-biological design considerations. High
specific heat, high thermal conductivity, low co-efficient of thermal expansion and
stable coefficient of friction over the temperature of operation with low wear are the
key characteristics of Carbon Carbon Brake Discs.
Carbon Carbon Brake Discs have been developed both for Airforce and Navy
versions of LCA. The key technologies developed include preforming with woven
fabrics, chopped strands, spun yarn fabrics, densification with high pressure liquid
pitch impregnation, carbonization, (HIP) and Graphitization.

Squeeze riveting of

metallic clips with Carbon Carbon rotors has been established. Non-rubbing zones of
Carbon Carbon Discs are protected with specially formulated ceramic paint for
oxidation resistance.
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Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology

26 - 28 June 2008, Bangalore, India

4.

RADOMES

Primary function of the radome is to transmit electro-magnetic energy with

minimum distortion and loss. Normally it forms as nose part of the vehicle structure
and is subjected to flight loads as well as environmental conditions corresponding to
the vehicle on which it is mounted. Electro-magnetic design, based on operating
frequency range, is the critical design requirement for radomes and for this purpose, a
versatile in-house software called EMPEROR (Electro-magnetic performance of
radomes) is developed based on plane wave spectrum analysis. This software has
shown matching predictions for problems in comparison with other softwares
available. Different types of radomes based on E-glass, D-glass and Kevlar contour
woven socks together with low loss polyester, epoxy, phenolic and cyanate ester resin
systems have been developed successfully for varying applications. Close control
over design thickness and uniform distribution of the material system are the prime
requirements for this component.

In case the performance requirements on loss,

power transmission, side lobe level and bore-sight error are very stringent as in the
case of Light Combat Aircraft, it becomes necessary to go in for a variable thickness
radome, in place of uniform thickness radome, which is normally used. Also for large
size radomes, an Insertion Phase Delay (IPD) measurement and correction system
will be employed to make finer corrections after fabrication so that rejections are
almost eliminated on production requirements.

5.

ROCKET MOTOR CASINGS

Rocket Motor Casing is basically a pressure vessel with specially designed end
fittings namely polar bosses and skirts. The polar bosses are provided with matching
interfaces to igniter and nozzle assemblies on either side. The skirts take care of
attachment to the fore and aft end sections of the Missile. The polar bosses are
structurally designed by considering a cantilever configuration subjected to internal
pressure load and nozzle ejection load. A rubber encapsulation is provided between
the metal polar boss and the composite

Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology

26 - 28 June 2008, Bangalore, India

casing to absorb the differential expansions. The skirt is designed by considering it as

a simple cylindrical composite column subjected to axial inertial force and bending
moment. CNC filament winding is an obvious choice to realize the casing and nongeodesic helical winding is resorted to. Doilies of re-inforcing fabric are laid-up at the
end domes to provide longitudinal strength near pole openings and circumferential
strength near the equator. Finally, efficiency of a rocket motor casing can be judged in
terms of performance factor which is of the order of 5 for metallic casings and it can be
upto 20 for Composite Casings with advanced material systems.
Number of other components are also tried out with Composites and in short,
Composites are the best materials for Aerospace applications.