Aluminum-Lithium Alloy 2050 for Reduced-Weight, Increased-Stiffness Space Structures

Touchstone Research Laboratory, along with Alcan Rolled ProductsÂ? Ravenswood WV, has identified the Aluminum-Lithium Alloy 2050 as a potentially game-changing material replacement for current space structural alloys such as Aluminum-Lithium alloy 2195. AA2050 is available in significantly thicker plate gauges than AA2195 and, as a result, can be machined orformed into ribs, stringers or other types of stiffened structures that have increased stiffness and as a result provide overall structural weight savings potential of approximately 15 to 20%. The AA2050, however, needs more development work and understanding in the area of cryogenic material properties, joining, and design potential to be considered for NASA mission vehicles. Touchstone is proposing a Phase I effort to do cryogenic characterization testing, concept design, and computational modeling and analysis to demonstrate the feasibility of using AA2050 for increased-stiffness, reduced-weight space structures.