Manufacturing and mechanical properties of adjustable stiffness hierarchical orthogrid stiffened cylinders

Abstract Modular spacecraft offer promising prospects in the aerospace industry due to their ability to adapt to complex missions and diverse space environments. Nevertheless, such spacecraft may face load‐bearing structure adaptation issues caused by the changes in load demand when replacing sub‐modules for various missions. This necessitates the re‐design and manufacturing of load‐bearing structures, resulting in significant increases in product cycles and costs. To overcome this challenge, innovative composite hierarchical orthogrid stiffened cylinders (CHOSCs) which offer adjustable stiffness and strength to suit various mission requirements are proposed. To investigate the stiffness and strength adjustability, high‐precision composite orthogrid stiffened cylinder (COSC), CHOSC with three primary ribs (T‐CHOSC), and CHOSC with four primary ribs (F‐CHOSC) were manufactured and tested. The results demonstrate that CHOSCs exhibit stiffness and strength adjustability and significantly improve the cylinder's load‐bearing efficiency. Furthermore, a finite element model based on the Hashin damage criterion was employed to capture the end failure of the primary ribs and the local basic rib fractures near the cylinder end. CHOSCs present a feasible solution to the load‐bearing structure adaptation issues caused by the changes in load demand when replacing sub‐modules for various missions and hold significant potential for advancing the aerospace industry. Highlights Composite hierarchical orthogrid stiffened cylinders (CHOSCs) are proposed. High‐precision CHOSCs are manufactured by combined metal molds. Load‐bearing capacity and failure behavior are investigated. CHOSCs exhibit stiffness adjustability and load‐bearing efficiency. CHOSCs could solve the structure adaptation issues in modular spacecraft.