Experimental Prediction of Shock Response Spectra of Point-Wise Explosive Pyroshock in a Space Launcher Composite Structure Using Laser Pulse Excitation and In-line Filtering 2013-01-2088

Numerous pyrotechnic devices have been employed in satellite launch vehicle missions, generally for the separation of structural subsystems such as stage and satellite separation. The detonation of the pyrotechnic devices generates shock waves characterized by high accelerations and vibrations which cause the failure of electronic components. To reduce the possibility of failure, many researchers have attempted to develop various experimental and numerical simulation methods for investigating pyroshock behavior to determine the appropriate placement of sensitive equipment. However, most of those methods have limitations such as low flexibility and high costs in the experimental methods and relatively low efficiency and reliability in the numerical methods. This study proposes a simple experimental method for pyroshock prediction using only laser pulse excitation and in-line filters for composite structure. Overall configuration of SRS (Shock Response Spectrum) curve of conditioned laser shock was adjusted with laser fluence changes and its tails were tailored using in-line and numerical filters to match those of real pyroshock. The simulation results present the SRS curves match throughout the frequency range of interest with high accuracy, which is an advantage over the numerical methods that can match either low or high frequency range. At the same time, this method has relatively low costs and high flexibility compared to the conventional experimental methods, demonstrating that this approach could be one of the promising solutions for pyroshock investigation.