Development of boron-epoxy tubular struts for a one-third scale shuttle booster thrust structure.

A one-third scale booster thrust truss structure was designed by Grumman under an in-house program using both boron/epoxy and titanium for the tubular strut members. The boron/epoxy design showed a 22% weight saving and a two phase demonstration program was subsequently funded by NASA-MSFC. In the first phase, structural elements and the most highly loaded center member of the truss were fabricated and tested. The second phase consists of fabrication and test of a complete two-dimensional truss. The design, analysis, fabrication and test procedures are discussed in this paper which also includes the results of successful tests on the elements and center member conducted under the first phase of the NASA program.