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DLR DAAD Fellowships

Fellowship - No. 254

Research Area : Space

Research Topic: New approach for the calculation of the buckling load imperfection
sensitive space structures using the non-destructive method
Vibration Correlation Technique

DLR Institute: Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems, DLR Braunschweig

Position: Doctoral Fellow

Openings: 1

Job Specification:
European future space launchers are planned to be more cost-efficient
and made from advanced materials which are expected to reduce weight
and costs. Most structures are very thin-walled and imperfection
sensitive. Buckling is therefore in most cases the critical design criterion.
Currently such structures are still designed by the NASA SP 8007 which
dates from 1968. This guideline is very conservative and recent results
show that alternative design approaches may lead to lighter structures
by up to 20%. Independent of the design approach a validation by
experiments is absolutely necessary. Buckling experiments are the
standard procedure, however, during the experiment the first damage
may be material failure and not buckling, even if buckling was predicted.
In this case the validation of the design method for buckling is not
sufficient. There is therefore a high need for non-destructive methods, to
obtain the buckling load of such imperfection sensitive thin-walled
structures by an alternative way. The Vibration Correlation Technique
(VCT) is the most promising method which allows determining the
buckling load or real boundary conditions for different types of structures
without reaching the instability point. This method proved to be
successful for plates with simple boundary conditions. For curved shells
or complex boundary conditions this technique is still under
development. However, considering unstiffened cylindrical shells loaded

DLR DAAD-Research Fellowships Current Offer Page 1

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in compression a promising approach [1], using VCT, to predict realistic

buckling loads, was already developed. This approach was successfully
validated for this type of structures.

The PhD work starts with benchmarking to study the limits of the current
approaches. Next the empirical approach for typical scaled space
structures using real boundary conditions shall be extended. The new
concept will be finally validated by test results. The final project result is
a new approach for the calculation of the buckling load imperfection
sensitive space structures using the non-destructive method Vibration
Correlation Technique.

The PhD candidate will work at the DLR Institute in co-operation with
other team members and international partners.

[1] Arbelo M., Almeida S., Danadon M., Rett S., Degenhardt R., Castro S., Kalnins K., Ozolins O.,
Vibration correlation technique for the estimation of real boundary conditions and buckling load of
unstiffened plates and cylindrical shells, Int. Journal of Thin-Walled Structures, Vol. 79, (2014),
pp.119-128

Required Qualification: Master of Engineering

Advantageous Skills: Mechanical engineering, structural mechanics, Finite-Element-

Simulation, Experience with buckling experiments

English competence: Good in writing and speaking

Earliest Start Date: 1 July 2016

Application Deadline: 1 May 2016

Further Information: http://www.dlr.de

http://www.daad.de/dlr