Anu Retnakar ,Jayasree Ramanujan , Ajin A.S , G. Jeganla
Satellite launch vehicle puts an artificial satellite in orbit to circle round the earth and is used for communication and remote sensing. The upper stages of many launch vehicles are cryo stages i.e., stages that use liquid hydrogen LH2 and liquid oxygen LOx as propellants to generate thrust. Since liquid hydrogen is at -253°C and liquid oxygen is at -193°C, the tank material should have sufficient ductility and fracture toughness at low temperature apart from high specific strength. The tanks contain the propellant under pressure and are subjected to flight, axial, shear and bending loads, since they form part of the core vehicle. The tanks are to be designed for pressure, flight loads and thermal loads. They have to be extremely light and reliable. Axisymmetric modelling and analysis of the cryo propellant tank containing liquid hydrogen is done by using ANSYS. Geometric nonlinear analysis was performed & the equivalent von Mises stress exceeded ultimate strength