Curved cap corrugated sheet
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
InventorsRandall C. Davis, Thomas T. Bales, Dick M. Royster, L. Robert Jackson
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Abstract
The invention is a structure for a strong, lightweight corrugated sheet. The sheet is planar or curved and includes a plurality of corrugation segments, each segment being comprised of a generally U-shaped corrugation 12 with a part-cylindrical crown 13 and cap strip 20, and straight side walls 14 and 15 with secondary corrugations 16 oriented at right angles to said side walls. The cap strip 20 is bonded to the crown 13 and the longitudinal edge 18 of said cap strip extends beyond edge 17 at the intersection between said crown and said side walls. The high strength relative to weight of the structure makes it desirable for use in aircraft or spacecraft.
Claims10
A strong, lightweight corrugated sheet comprising:
- a sheet comprised of a plurality of corrugated members, said members having sidewalls which are themselves corrugated;
- said corrugated members further being composed of alternate top crown means and bottom crown means which tie the sidewalls together to form the sheet;
- each of said sidewalls having upper and lower edges intersecting at an angle with the adjacent top crown means and bottom crown means and being rigidly secured therealong;
- said top and bottom crown means being part-cylindrical thereby forming an arcuate structure to strengthen the corrugated sheet in a direction generally transverse to the direction of the corrugated sidewalls.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.