Jeroen Van den Eynde , Attila Jasko, João F. A. Martos, Matteo Appolloni, Johan Steelant, Alexander Kallenbach , Anton Shardin , Anton Gorskiy
DOI Number XXX-YYY-ZZZ
Conference Number HiSST 2018_310812
Abstract
To accommodate the protruding wing tips and control surfaces under the fairing of a sounding rocket, a hooded fairing is proposed by DLR avoiding as such the use of an oversized hammerhead fairing. The latter would induce a larger aerodynamic drag and lower the static margin significantly. To assure a symmetric configuration, a third hood is added such that the hoods are azimuthally 120˚ separated. This particular fairing configuration opens up the possibility to accommodate larger dimensions of flight test vehicles otherwise limited by the finite wing span. Due to the cut-outs in the monocoque fairing allowing the passage of the wing tips and control surfaces, one reduces locally the stiffness and introduces local stresses. Furthermore, during the fairing release by forward translation, a guidance reduces uncontrolled attitude changes of the cone and prevents unwanted impact of the hoods and cone with the wingtips and payload. The preliminary design will further consider the various loads to which the fairing is exposed to from lift-off up to fairing release at 75km altitude 121 seconds later. As the flight follows a suppressed trajectory, the longer passage in the atmosphere results in an extended exposure to thermo-mechanical loads. This entails mechanical vibration, acceleration, aerodynamic and thermal loads. Based upon the thermo-mechanical analyses, the shell thickness and the material choice will be optimized. Glass fibre composite is the basic material of choice as it is transparent for Radio Frequency.