Launch Vehicle 4: Airframe Design and Analysis for a 100km Rocket

The design of LV4 is a scaled up version of the LV3.1 rocket and the fundamental goal of this project was to determine the feasibility of the airframe design to meet the needs of a 100 km rocket. The LV4 designed airframe incorporates composite, aluminum, and isogrid propellant tank modules.

The main objective for this project was to determine if the modular design of LV3.1 (11.7 ft long with a 6.7 in outer diameter (OD)) could scale up to the larger LV4 (27.6 ft long with a 12 in OD) while retaining its functionality and proposed capabilities outlined by the multidisciplinary optimization program (MDO). Along with being scalable from LV3.1, LV4 needs to be fueled using liquid oxygen (LOX) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) instead of the solid rocket fuel used in LV3.1. This required the project to design and analyse isogrid fuel tanks and test their manufacturability.

The scalability from a 6” to a 12” diameter rocket has been determined to be possible and has met the structural requirements. The isogrid tanks have also proven to be achievable as test tanks are currently being manufactured.