scope:

This document is intended to be used for the determination of the stress/strain distribution and margins of safety in launch vehicles and spacecraft load-bearing elements design. Liquid propellant engine structures, solid propellant engine nozzles and the solid propellant itself are not covered, but liquid propellant tanks, pressure vessels and solid propellant cases are within the scope of this document.

This document provides requirements for the determination of maximum stress and corresponding margin of safety under loading, and defines criteria for static strength failure modes, such as rupture, collapse and detrimental yielding. Critical conditions induced fatigue, creep and crack growths are not covered. Notwithstanding these limitations in scope, the results of stress calculations based on the requirements of this document are applicable to other critical condition analyses.

In accordance with the requirements of this document, models, methods and procedures for stress calculation can also be applied to the displacements and deformation calculation, as well as for calculation of loads, applied to substructures and structural elements under consideration. When this document is applied, it is assumed that temperature distribution has been determined and is used as input data.