SPACE LAUNCH VEHICLE FULL-SCALE DAMPING TESTS

Abstract

The wind study portion of testing showed that the SLV gantry tower is sufficiently stable to be used as a base for forced oscillation of the vehicle and that any measurement of relative motion between the vehicle and tower is of vehicle movement only. The structural damping ratio of the first cantilever mode of Atlas Agena 461 and 698 BJ varied between a high of 2.14 percent and a low of 0.57 percent, depending upon the axes and the tanking condition. It was not possible to determine a damping factor for all cases by the methods used because of the internal (liquid) movements, but for many conditions damping factors were determined with good accuracy. In general the theoretical frequencies were verified to an excellent degree. The experimental damping factors agreed reasonably well with the results of previous tests. Increased confidence in the recent SLV ground wind restrictions has been the direct result of this test.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 21, 1963
Accession Number
AD0429015

Entities

People

  • J. G. Miller

Organizations

  • General Dynamics

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Backup Systems
  • Bending Moments
  • Chlorides
  • Frequency
  • Gages
  • Government Procurement
  • Hydraulic Cylinders
  • Instrumentation
  • Launch Vehicles
  • Load Cells
  • Measurement
  • Oscillation
  • Relative Motion
  • Strain Gages
  • Test Methods
  • Transducers
  • Wind Tunnel Tests

Readers

  • Aerospace Test and Evaluation
  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Materials Science (Mechanical Engineering).

Technology Areas

  • Space