New Aerospace Testing Products
Editors from Aerospace Engineering review the latest testing, simulation, and software analysis products.
Testing and simulation serve a variety of purposes—increasing knowledge and understanding with research, validating concepts or designs, and performing assessments of quality and functionality. Traditionally, computer software served to compile and organize the data into a format that made sense to the engineers and scientists. However, simulation and analysis packages have become so entwined with the testing process that some of these products are also included in this section.
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Flow-feature extraction for CFD
CEI has added flow-feature extraction to its EnSight 7.2 computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. The software provides automatic detection and display of major flow features such as shock waves, vortex cores, boundary layer separation and reattachment lines, surface flow topology, and boundary layer characteristics. Shock wave feature extraction enables users to isolate and display only the shock waves within an analysis. Vortex core extraction is good for determining areas with strongly swirling flows. Boundary layer separation and attachment visualization allow engineers to pinpoint areas where the flow no longer remains smooth along the surface. Surface flow topology provides a snapshot of the flow behavior directly on an aircraft's surface, similar to the oil-smear technique used in wind tunnels.
Rugged accelerometer
Kistler Instrument Corp. has developed models 8638B5 and 8638B50 PiezoBeam accelerometers, which feature high-sensitivity ceramic beam-sensing elements and hybrid signal conditioners housed in a rugged, hermetically sealed, stainless-steel case. The accelerometer's ground-isolated design helps eliminate many ground loop problems that plague measurement applications. The stud-mounted 8638 is available in both 5 and 50 g ranges with sensitivities of 1000 and 100 mV/g, respectively. The frequency response of the 8638B5 unit is 0.5-2 kHz while the other unit's range is 0.5-5 kHz. The built-in charge converter electronics provides a low-impedance voltage output, allowing the use of standard low-cost cabling. Applications for these accelerometers include low-frequency measurements, investigation of vibrations and oscillations in mechanical structures, and modal analysis.
Finite-element analysis
Structural Research & Analysis Corp. (SRAC) has released its latest version of COSMOS/M finite-element analysis (FEA) software. Version 2.6 introduces several enhancements in the areas of heat transfer and nonlinear analysis. New commands have been added to the software to perform coupling of nodes and their corresponding DOF with respect to geometric entities such as surfaces or regions. Results of transient thermal analysis can be set for automatic assignment as multiple load cases to perform linear thermal stress analysis. The software's linear static analysis module was restructured to achieve high performance and speed. The thermal analysis module features a new phase change capability and a new iterative solver for all thermal analysis options. The nonlinear static and dynamic analysis module also has a new iterative solver extended to all nonlinearities, including large deformation, material nonlinearities, and contact analysis.
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