49th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference <br>16t AIAA 2008-1831

7 - 10 April 2008, Schaumburg, IL

Design, Fabrication, and Testing of the

Minotaur IV Large Fairing

John E. Higgins*
Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117

and

Adam Biskner† & Greg Sanford‡

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CSA Engineering, Inc., Albuquerque, NM, 87123

This paper describes the development and testing of a new fairing for the Minotaur IV
launch vehicle that increases the nominal diameter by 20 percent to 110 inches. The Air
Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate managed the development of this
fairing for the purposes of demonstrating two out-of-autoclave large composite structure
manufacturing processes. The larger portion of the fairing was fabricated using Alliant
Techsystems’ developed procedures for high quality composites using pre-preg cloth,
extensive vacuum bagging, and oven curing. The smaller, but highly loaded, boattail portion
of the fairing uses a WebCore sandwich core with a carbon fiber wrapped foam core. This
portion of the fairing was produced using a Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding
process followed by an oven cure. The fairing assembly is composed of four main sections
with bolted composite-to-composite connections. The large fairing qualification test is the
first of its kind conducted at AFRL since recent facility upgrades. The primary objective is
to validate that the fairing can survive 125 percent of the predicted flight-induced loads.
During the experiment force is concurrently applied at four discrete locations to create
critical flight-like stresses and strains in the proper test article region without over testing
non-critical areas. During the test synchronized force, strain, and displacement data will be
acquired for comparison to pretest predictions.

I. Introduction

T his paper describes the development and testing of a new fairing for the Minotaur IV launch vehicle. This is a
relatively new launch vehicle assembled from Minuteman solid rockets and extra stages to allow delivery of
moderately large spacecraft to orbital missions. The baseline fairing for this launch vehicle is 92 inches in diameter;
the new fairing, planned by Space and Missile Systems Center and their contractor Orbital Sciences Corporation
(OSC), is 110 inches, using a boattail configuration with a modest 1.2 aspect ratio, shown in Figure 1. The length of
the fairing is approximately 21 feet. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate, Kirtland
AFB, NM has agreed to develop this fairing for the purposes of demonstrating, and potentially obtaining, flight
heritage for two out-of-autoclave composite manufacturing processes. The larger portion of the fairing was
fabricated using Alliant Techsystems (ATK) developed procedures for high quality composites using pre-preg cloth,
extensive vacuum bagging, and oven curing. The much smaller, but highly loaded boattail portion of the fairing,
uses a WebCore sandwich core with a carbon fiber wrapped foam core. This portion of the fairing was produced
using a Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) process and oven curing.1 The fairing was assembled
from four sections with bolted composite to composite connections. The fairing will be qualification tested in the
AFRL’s laboratory at Kirtland AFB. The second half of this paper details the design and execution of a unique
aerospace structural test.

*
Aerospace Engineer, AFRL/RVSV, 3550 Aberdeen Ave. SE, Kirtland AFB, NM 87117, AIAA Member.
†
Project Engineer, 1451 Innovation Parkway SE, Suite 100, Albuquerque, NM 87123, AIAA Member.
‡
Senior Engineer, 1451 Innovation Parkway SE, Suite 100, Albuquerque, NM 87123, AIAA Member.

1
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Copyright © 2008 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

The U.S. Government has a royalty-free license to exercise all rights under the copyright claimed herein for Governmental purposes.
All other rights are reserved by the copyright owner.
 II. Fairing Design and Supporting Analysis
The fairing is assembled with standard explosive separation systems (inert for testing) to allow the longitudinal
separation of the fairing into two halves at high altitude as shown in Figure 1. In this case, to accommodate two
differing structural systems, the main portion of the fairing and the boattail halves are joined with a bolted
connection. Representative access ports were provided as need by the Space and Missile Systems Center and OSC.
The fairing structure was designed to OSC requirements by ATK engineering staff.

Fairing Separation Rail

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Nose cap Boattail

Figure 1. Fairing blowup—part illustration

Sandwich construction with oven curing and WebCore materials were selected as the two most viable candidates
of an ATK study conducted for AFRL in 2002. Material merits were assessed based on availability and cost,
inspectability, manufacturing process development, design development, material properties, production cost, and
weight, the final scores of the materials considered are shown in Figure 2. Weighting factors are proprietary, but
hinge heavily on production cost and fairing weight impact. The upper portion of the fairing was produced with
Hexcel M35-4/AS4 3K PW cloth designed to B-Basis allowable strengths, not including knock-down factors for
fatigue since these are one use structures.

Figure 2. Material selection study results

As with most composite structures, the bulk of the design effort is in the transitioning geometry and joints.
Representative design features for this structure are illustrated in Figure 3 and Figure 4. As shown in Figure 3, the
conic transition requires denser honeycomb and extra plies to carry higher shear at these corners. The majority of the
surface area of this structure is at, or near, a practical minimum gage for handling and durability rather than applied
flight loads. In Figure 4 the critical horizontal joint is illustrated. The boattail and upper fairing are both transitioned
to solid laminates at this location.

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Figure 3. Conic transition detail Figure 4. Boattail to upper fairing joint

Static qualification testing is always an approximation and compromise to actual flight test results. Figure 5 and
5 illustrate the predicted stress, buckling, and displacement for 0 degree max flight load and qualification loads,
respectively. The margins of safety and maximum displacements are very similar for both load cases; however,
loading the structures with a nose plate and draped belts fails to impart buckling loads in the upper conic section
properly. These loads are non-critical to flight and are neglected for testing purposes. The primary objective when
selecting test loads is to match the critical stress and strain levels in the critical region of the test article.

Figure 5. Stress, buckling, and max displacement contours for maximum flight loads at 0 deg

Figure 6. Stress, buckling, and max displacement contours for test loads at 0 deg

III. Fabrication Technique

The upper halves of the fairing were placed on a simple steel tool using an effective, special purpose ladder and
platform device for required hand placement of pre-preg cloth, displayed in Figure 7. Despite innovations in
VARTM and computerized tow placement in the composite industry in recent years, the most time efficient method
of placing large, high quality composite structures continues to be hand lay-up. The larger the structure, the more
truth this statement seems to hold. Although AFRL remains interested in evolving faster tape-placement systems and
similar advanced manufacturing techniques, composites components are still fabricated with the most effective
method.

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Downloaded by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics on September 28, 2017 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/6.2008-1831

Figure 7. Hand lay-up of upper sandwich panel structure

During the boat tail preliminary design phase, an extensive trade study evaluated several material systems for
cost, performance, and basic VaRTM processing. A ¼-scale demonstrator article was also fabricated to review the
basic design concept and to highlight potential processing issues prior to moving forward into the full scale
development stage.
Lessons learned from the fabrication of the ¼-scale demonstrator illustrated several key processing challenges
which include the difficulty of maintaining fabric ply orientation with a standard carbon weave, heat forming the
Rohacell closeout sections to shape, and ply wrinkling, shown in Figure 8. The basic design concept incorporating
the core closeout technique with the Rohacell foam and the WebCore core material worked extremely well during
the ¼-scale demonstrator fabrication. Heat forming strips of the Rohacell to a circular shape for the ¼-scale
demonstrator was performed primarily to reduce costs. Rohacell closeouts sections for the full scale test articles
were machined to shape to allow a precise fit. To improve fiber alignment and overall handling, the carbon fiber
weave was adjusted to a quasi-isotropic stitched preform manufactured by Vector Ply.

Figure 8. ¼-Scale demonstrator tool (left) and demonstrator unit (right) with wrinkles and fiber distortion

A tooling solution that offered a quicker turnaround time with some flexibility to compensate for the potential of
part spring back was selected. The ¼-scale demonstrator indicated that a male conical shaped tool caused the fabric
to essentially compress and wrinkle as the material was debulked and infused. A female tool design was fabricated,
shown in Figure 9, which should allow the fibers to stretch into position minimizing fiber wrinkle and buckle.
Working with Janicki Industries, a wooden support structure with carbon/epoxy reinforcement in the part mold
region to help match the CTE of the part was surfaced with proprietary putty machined to required tolerances. The
mold was coated with a protective coating to seal the tool to a level necessary for the high vacuum integrity required
with the VaRTM process. Janicki recommended to keep the upper cure temperature below 200°F to help prolong
tool life and to minimize part distortion. Working with Applied Polyeramic a resin vitrification and post cure
process were then developed to accommodate this tool characteristic. The part was then removed from the mold for
a free standing post cure, which was achieved with a slow ramp to 302°F.

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Downloaded by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics on September 28, 2017 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/6.2008-1831

Figure 9. Completed Janicki female tool

A critical unknown in the development of the full scale boat tail half segment was measured spring back of the
part through the verification and post cure process. Post-cure spring back of a pathfinder part amounted to
approximately 6.4 mm inward at each end. The prototype mold was then reworked at Janicki to compensate for this
spring in.
Several processing trials were conducted to optimize the resin flow and to minimize void content, as displayed in
Figure 10. A single layer of Micromesh with a light coating of spray adhesive offered the best compromise between
flow, laminate quality, and ease of processing. AirTech “Micromesh” is a lightweight (17 g/m2) polyamide mesh
designed to enhance resin flow for carbon materials. The VARTM manufacturing stages of the final boattail part are
illustrated in Figure 11 through Figure 14.

Figure 10. VARTM flow tests Figure 11. Peel ply, micromesh, and C-QX 2300
on outer laminate

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Figure 12. Completed outer laminate Figure 13. Webcore core and Rohacell 200WF taper
in debulk bag

Figure 14. Infusion Setup with multiple infusion lines Figure 15. Fairing assembly

As illustrated in Figure 15, the various components of the fairing were assembled by ATK in Clearfield, UT,
before shipping the entire fairing to AFRL in August 2007 for qualification testing.

IV. Experiment Design

The large fairing qualification test will be the first of its kind conducted at AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate
since recent facility upgrades2. The organization’s Integrated Structures Team has designed and procured a larger
load frame that provides a square internal footprint, 18 feet to a side, with 20 feet of vertical space. The reaction
structure was designed to apply 630,000 pounds of vertical force in addition to lesser lateral loads. The new frame
will utilize AFRL’s existing MTS Corporation load control system that contains integrated data acquisition
hardware and software.

A. Test Setup
The static test requirements were provided by ATK engineers based on the predicted flight environment and
finite element analyses of the structure. The requirements drive the test design which seeks to match flight-like
stress or strain levels and profiles by applying forces at discrete locations while avoiding the creation of detrimental
loads that are inherently induced by the test setup. Flight-to-test discrepancies are unavoidable due to the vast
disparity in the nature of the load application; however, great effort is directed towards minimizing the
inconsistencies. This typically requires reengagement of the stress engineers once a preliminary test setup has been
designed to evaluate its effect on the test article.

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 Shear and Bending
Loadlines
Axial
Loadline
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Access
Tooling
Figure 16. Minotaur IV Large Fairing test configuration

The test configuration, shown in Figure 17, incorporates access tooling between the aft of the fairing and the
base of the reaction structure. The purpose of the cylindrical tooling is to reduce the stiffness below the fairing to
levels that more closely resemble the interfacing flight hardware. The final tooling design imposes 170 percent of
the launch vehicle’s axial stiffness and 115 percent of its bending stiffness on the test article. Although these
numbers do not match the flight hardware they are significantly closer than reaction structure and base plate, aiding
the induction of flight-like stresses during the experiment. The tooling also permits entry to the instrumentation and
the axial load actuator located in the interior of the test article. In addition to matching stiffness, the adapter was
designed to comply with generous strength factors of safety. An aluminum load head was seated atop the fairing in
lieu of the traditional rounded nose cap. The load head provides a solid attachment point to apply the axial force.
Further discussed in the next section, the axial load is the greatest of the test loads. The access tooling, the fairing,
and the load head are together referred to as the test stack.

B. Load Application
A combination of axial, shear, and bending loads will be applied to the large fairing at the four distinct locations
shown in Figure 16. The axial, or drag, force is a compressive load on the structure. Applying the force from above
the test stack would require approximately 29 feet of vertical space within the load frame, necessitating a significant
enhancement to the current test facility which has a 20 foot span. An alternative approach is positioning the axial
loadline on the interior of the test stack to pull down on the fairing, which voids a need for a structural extensions
above the reaction frame and alleviates alignment difficulties intrinsic to compressive loads. For this experiment the
large axial actuator and load cell are attached to the reaction frame’s baseplate and is coupled to the loadhead with a
heavy strap as shown in the right portion of Figure 16.
Three lateral loads will be simultaneously applied to the outer surface of the fairing along with the axial force.
Although the load magnitudes are each significantly less than the axial value, they are still considerable. To prevent
localized load peaking on the composite skin, each load will be applied through a custom wide-body polyester strap.
Resolving the path by which these straps wrap around the fairing was a geometric challenge but necessary in
determining the practical ability to apply the specified test loads. This process required an iterative collaboration
between the stress and test engineers. Figure 17(a) displays the originally specified test loads, as the test engineers
identified the true position of the straps on the fairing, the stress engineers evaluated the modified setup’s ability to
achieve the desired load levels and profiles. During this program the test load requirement progressed from that
displayed in Figure 17(a) to Figure 17(c) as the test design was further developed. The additional lateral loadline
hardware, displayed in Figure 18, is also specifically designed and built for this experiment with the exception of
actuator and load cell.

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 Fdrag
Fdrag

31.6°
220.0”
Fb

24” 22.0°

Fc
175.0”
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24” Fd

80.0”

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 17. Progression of the lateral load specification

Figure 18. Sample lateral loadline

The test cases will be conducted at two azimuthally oriented locations to validate that the test article can survive
125 percent of the predicted flight-induced loads. The test load magnitudes, shown in Table 1, are the same for both
load cases. The first test orientation will apply the maximum compressive lineload over a door cutout. The entire test
stack will then be rotated 90 degrees to apply the maximum compression along the fairing’s split line. During the
experiment, synchronized force, strain, and displacement data will be acquired for comparison to pretest predictions.

Table 1. Qualification test loads

Fdrag Fb Fc Fd
(lbs) (lbs) (lbs) (lbs)
182,000 11,500 10,800 14,000

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 C. Instrumentation
Four load cells, 208 strain gages, and six displacement transducers make up the instrumentation suite for this test
operation. A load cell is mounted to the shaft of each actuator to close the load control loop of the MTS system.
Each load cell is configured with dual-bridges, giving a redundant and independent load reading. Readings from the
second (monitor) bridge are continuously compared to the first (feedback) bridge within the control software.
Deviations between the feedback and monitor bridges are an indication of a multitude of potential problems and are
corrected before test operations are continued.3 AFRL’s static test facility can currently accommodate up to 18
synchronized control channels
A total of 256 channels are also available for strain gages and displacement sensors. These sensors are used to
monitor peak strains, overall strain fields, and critical displacements during test operations. Critical strains will be
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monitored during load application to avoid premature test article failure. Additional strain data will be used to
correlate and correct pre-test finite element models to be used on programs. Displacements will be used to assess the
fairing’s structural stiffness, critical to launch vehicle flight dynamics.3 Continuous digital video of critical
hardware regions is also recorded during a qualification test to visually capture a potential failure.

V. Summary
This paper documented the development of a larger faring for the Minotaur IV launch vehicle. The Air Force
Research Laboratory managed this effort due to their interest in out-of-autoclave carbon composite fabrication
technologies and their adaptability to much larger structures in the future. The testing of this fairing extends a
rapidly growing database of independently verified large composite structure designs generated by or for AFRL.

References
1
Berg, J.S., et al., “VARTM Infusion Development for Carbon/Epoxy Space Structure Applications”,
Proceedings of SAMPE ’08, Material & Process Innovations, Long Beach, CA, 2008.
2
Sanford, G.E., and Welsh, J.S., “Structural Qualification Testing of Unique Aerospace Structures,” SAMPE
2004, Long Beach, CA, May 2004.
3
Sanford, G.E., et al., “Test Design and Static Testing of the Atlas V CCB Conical InterStage Adapter”,
Proceedings of 48th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference,
Honolulu, HI, 2007.

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