Sled Design Techniques.

Rocket sleds are commonly used for simulation of special environments for testing purposes. The motion of a sled on the track induces large quasi-steady state and dynamic forces on the sled. Design of sleds requires knowledge of these forces and of established techniques for the application of measured and theoretical forcing functions to proven mathematical structural simulations. Multicomponent force transducers were developed and designed as an integral part of a sled structure. An extensive measurements program was conducted on the high speed test track using these newly developed transducers. A modeling program was conducted to establish the accuracy with which lumped mass-stiffness computer programs can model a sled. A nonlinear rigid body computer model, with provisions for adding secondary mass systems, was developed to simulate rocket sled motion. Random analysis techniques were then applied to the sled linear computer models. These design techniques were organized into recommended design procedures for rocket sleds. Author