Taguchi's approach for reliability and safety assessments in the stage separation process of a multistage launch vehicle

This paper presents in brief the formulation for lateral and longitudinal dynamics associated with the separation and pull out of an ongoing functional stage from the spent stage of a multistage launch vehicle using separation motors as jettisoning system. Taguchi method is employed to understand the influencing parameters in the separation process. It is possible to minimize the number of Monte-Carlo simulations (MCS) by Taguchi's orthogonal array. Statistical analysis has been carried out to identify the probability distribution function (PDF) for reliability and safety assessment of the stage separation system. The tolerances on the pull out time, relative velocity, lateral gap and longitudinal clearances between the separating bodies are taken into account while examining the non-occurrence of collision between the separating bodies. Lateral gap/dynamic clearance between stages are found to be very vital from collision aspects. This study clearly demonstrates the applicability of Taguchi method to capture the essential Monte-Carlo simulation results in the stage separation process. The method of approach followed in this study will be useful to understand the dynamic behavior of the separating bodies during the stage separation process of multistage launch vehicles.