Strength and stability analysis of composite inverted conical structure

The present study focuses on the numerical and experimental investigation of a hat-stiffened composite inverted conical structure to identify its strength and stability under axial compressive loading conditions. A new design for the 3rd stage adapter with few changes in the present polar satellite launch vehicles launch vehicle is considered. An inverted conical structure with a hat-stiffened type of construction is used to obtain the higher bending stiffness. Both high-modulus and low-modulus uni-directional carbon prepreg are considered for the inverted conical structure. The experimental and numerical study is carried out on a hat-stiffened panel with a low-modulus carbon fiber prepreg material. Using the commercial software CATIA^®, the geometry of the inverted conical structure and hat-stiffened panel is generated. The structural analysis is carried out using MSC NASTRAN/PATRAN^® to determine the maximum load-carrying capacity, maximum stress and displacement values. It was observed that the strain obtained experimentally on the surface of the stiffened panel at twenty-six points using the 26-strain gauges shows good correlations with those obtained numerically.