An optimization-based procedure for self-generation of Re-entry Vehicles shape

Thermal Protection System Design of a Reusable Launch Vehicle Using Integral Soft Objects

“…In the present work, we assume that the generic shape of an RLV is represented by a grid formed by a quadrangular and/or by a degenerated triangular panel grid. Grid points are obtained using a proprietary procedure that authors fully detailed in [23,24]. Without going into details of the shape model, we remark that the mesh arrangement over the RLV surface is obtained with no NURBS support surface: a three-dimensional parametric wireframe is created using cubic rational B-splines and used to reconstruct the computational surface grid.…”

“…The above considerations ensure a topologically invariant shape. In previous papers proposed by the authors [23,24], a multidisciplinary shape optimization for an RLV comprising a trajectorybased TPS sizing procedure was developed. The TPS was modeled using two insulating materials placed at different locations along the vehicle surface.…”

“…The previously introduced modelling procedure has been applied on a conceptual RLV shape created with the model described in Section 4 and detailed in [23,24]. The applicability of the procedure is shown for the arbitrarily chosen distribution of stick primitives that creates a morphologically adaptive TPS on two RLV shapes with different dimensions: The parameters characterizing the distribution of thickness and the materials are reported in Table 1.…”

Parametric Integral Soft Objects-based Procedure for Thermal Protection System Modeling of Reusable Launch Vehicle

“…A generic shape of an RLV is represented by a grid formed by a quadrangular and/or by either degenerated triangular panel grid. Grid points are obtained using a proprietary procedure that authors fully detailed in [20,21]. Without going into details of the shape model, we remark that the mesh arrangement over the RLV surface is obtained with no NURBS support surface: a three-dimensional parametric wireframe is created using cubic rational B-splines [22] and used to reconstruct computational surface grid.…”

“…The previously introduced modeling procedure has been applied on a conceptual RLV shape created with the model described in Section 4 and detailed in [20,21]. Figure 6 shows a topological map obtained for an arbitrarily chosen distribution of stick primitives.…”