Abstract
The centuries-old idea of a lighter-than-air vacuum balloon has not materialized yet as such structure needs to be both light enough to float in the air and strong enough to withstand atmospheric pressure. We propose a design of a rigid spherical sandwich shell and demonstrate that it can satisfy these stringent conditions with commercially available materials, such as boron carbide ceramic and aluminum alloy honeycomb. A finite element analysis was employed to demonstrate that buckling can be prevented in the proposed structure. Also discussed are other modes of failure and approaches to manufacturing.
Highlights
This dream of vacuum balloon has not materialized so far because it is very difficult to design and manufacture a shell that is light enough to float in the air and strong enough to reliably withstand the atmospheric pressure
We used air pressure of 101 kPa and density of 1.29 kg·m−3 for the temperature of 0 ◦ C, material properties provided by manufacturers, a conservative simplification for honeycomb shear modulus, a 2D linear buckling finite analysis analysis (FEA), and a payload fraction of 0.1
We showed that a lighter-than-air rigid vacuum balloon can theoretically be built using commercially available materials
Summary
Vacuum balloons could aid in important applications, such as transportation, internet delivery, and cellular communications, as they have some advantages compared to lighterthan-air gas balloons: they do not need hydrogen, which is hazardous, or helium, which is increasingly expensive and difficult to contain; they do not need constant heating, like hot-air balloons, and they can have simpler altitude control through pumping air in and out This dream of vacuum balloon has not materialized so far because it is very difficult to design and manufacture a shell that is light enough to float in the air and strong enough to reliably withstand the atmospheric pressure.
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