Influence of clamp band joint on dynamic behavior of launching system in ascent flight

Abstract

A dynamic model for the launching system incorporating the influence of the clamp band joint is developed using the finite element method, where both of the launch vehicle and the spacecraft are modeled as Timoshenko beams. The clamp band joint is represented by a massless beam element, of which the element stiffness matrix is developed based on the expressions for the axial and bending stiffnesses of the joint deduced by the authors in the previous works. Dynamic analyses are performed to evaluate the joint influence on the launching system, where the variations of the mass and length of the launching system due to the fuel combustion and stage jettisons during the ascent flight are considered. The dynamic model presented here can be applied to investigate dynamics of launching systems involving the influence of clamp band joints conveniently.