ARIANE 5 BOOSTER DOMES CONNECTION TO STAGE SKIRTS : RESEARCH OF ANALTERNATIVE OPTIMISED CONCEPT

摘要

At present the interface of the Ariane 5 (A5) booster casedomes and skirts is realised by clevis-tang type junctions(which are double shear connection featuring radialpins). Efforts are undertaken to modify this connectionin order to achieve an improved design with respect tosimplicity, cost and mass. One promising solution issought in the substitution of the present pin joints byeither clamped or bolted connections.The paper presents an overview of the work that hasbeen started to define and assess corresponding designvariants. This includes first the definition of relevantdimensioning load cases and interface requirements. In asecond step concept design solutions are defined andassessed with regard to strength and functionalperformance. Preliminary calculation results as well as atentative qualitative trade-off are presented. Finally thepaper gives an indicative list of tasks that have to beperformed to attain the selection of a baseline concept.