Software Aids Design of Ares V Composite Shroud Structure

NASA’s Ares V space launch vehicle makes significant use of composites, and during flight, the shroud of the Ares V will separate into four petals to release the Lunar Lander. In the design of the structure, the aerodynamic pressure on the shroud is resolved into internally distributed forces. A combination of two software packages — HyperSizer structural sizing software and Abaqus FEA (finite element analysis) software from SIMULIA (Providence, RI) — was used to model and simulate this process.