Abstract

This chapter explores the design of a lighter than air vehicle (LTAV), which uses an internal vacuum to become positively buoyant. LTAVs may provide extended loiter for U.S. Air Force applications. This chapter considers the frame of an icosahedron-shaped LTAV subject to external atmospheric pressure evacuated at varying rates. A dynamic analysis reveals a nonlinear chaotic response under different boundary conditions. An analysis of the dynamic response is determined nonlinearly using a method that relies on a reference point distribution of external pressures to distribute the surface force across the frame.