NX NASTRAN Modeling Techniques with FEMAP Applied to a Flexured Spider Assembly
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The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is currently designing and building a number of instruments that operate in the microwave and millimeter-wave bands. These include MIRO (Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter), MLS (Microwave Limb Sounder), and IMAS (Integrated Multispectral Atmospheric Sounder). These instruments must be designed and built to meet key design criteria (e.g., beamwidth, gain, pointing) obtained from the scientific goals for the instrument. These criteria are frequently functions of the operating environment (both thermal and mechanical). To design and build instruments which meet these criteria, it is essential to be able to model the instrument in its environments. Currently, a number of modeling tools exist. Commonly used tools at JPL include: FEMAP (meshing), NASTRAN (structural modeling), TRASYS and SINDA (thermal modeling), MACOS/IMOS (optical modeling), and POPO (physical optics modeling). Each of these tools is used by an analyst, who models the instrument in one discipline. The analyst then provides the results of this modeling to another analyst, who continues the overall modeling in another discipline. There is a large reengineering task in place at JPL to automate and speed-up the structural and thermal modeling disciplines, which does not include MOD Tool. The focus of MOD Tool (and of this paper) is in the fields unique to microwave and millimeter-wave instrument design. These include initial design and analysis of the instrument without thermal or structural loads, the automation of the transfer of this design to a high-end CAD tool, and the analysis of the structurally deformed instrument (due to structural and/or thermal loads). MOD Tool is a distributed tool, with a database of design information residing on a server, physical optics analysis being performed on a variety of supercomputer platforms, and a graphical user interface (GUI) residing on the user's desktop computer. The MOD Tool client is being developed using Tcl/Tk, which allows the user to work on a choice of platforms (PC, Mac, or Unix) after downloading the Tcl/Tk binary, which is readily available on the web. The MOD Tool server is written using Expect, and it resides on a Sun workstation. Client/server communications are performed over a socket, where upon a connection from a client to the server, the server spawns a child which is be dedicated to communicating with that client. The server communicates with other machines, such as supercomputers using Expect with the username and password being provided by the user on the client.
FEM software available to the Mechanical Systems Analysis and Simulation Branch at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) include: 1) MSC/Nastran; 2) Abaqus; 3) Ansys/Multiphysics; 4) COSMOS/M; 5) 'Home-grown' programs; 6) Pre/post processors such as Patran and FEMAP. This viewgraph presentation provides additional information on MSC/Nastran and Ansys/Multiphysics, and includes screen shots of analyzed equipment, including the Wilkinson Microwave Anistropy Probe, a micro-mirror, a MEMS tunable filter, and a micro-shutter array. The presentation also includes information on the verification of results.
Advances in space telescope and aperture technology have created a need to launch larger structures into space. Traditional truss structures will be too heavy and bulky to be effectively used in the next generation of space-based structures. Large deployable structures are a possible solution. By packaging deployable trusses, the cargo volume of these large structures greatly decreases. The ultimate goal is to three dimensionally measure a boom's deployment in simulated microgravity. This project outlines the construction of the test frame that supports a gravity offload system. The test frame is stable enough to hold the gravity offload system and does not interfere with deployment of, or vibrations in, the deployable test boom. The natural frequencies and stability of the frame were engineered in FEMAP. The test frame was developed to have natural frequencies that would not match the first two modes of the deployable beam. The frame was then modeled in Solidworks and constructed. The test frame constructed is a stable base to perform studies on deployable structures.
The concept for Highly Reliable Reusable Launch Systems (HRRLS) under the NASA Hypersonics project is a two-stage-to-orbit, horizontal-take-off / horizontal-landing, (HTHL) architecture with an air-breathing first stage. The first stage vehicle is a slender body with an air-breathing propulsion system that is highly integrated with the airframe. The light weight slender body will deflect significantly during flight. This global deflection affects the flow over the vehicle and into the engine and thus the loads and moments on the vehicle. High-fidelity multi-disciplinary analyses that accounts for these fluid-structures-thermal interactions are required to accurately predict the vehicle loads and resultant response. These predictions of vehicle response to multi physics loads, calculated with fluid-structural-thermal interaction, are required in order to optimize the vehicle design over its full operating range. This contract with ResearchSouth addresses one of the primary objectives of the Vehicle Technology Integration (VTI) discipline: the development of high-fidelity multi-disciplinary analysis and optimization methods and tools for HRRLS vehicles. The primary goal of this effort is the development of an integrated software system that can be used for full-vehicle optimization. This goal was accomplished by: 1) integrating the master code, FEMAP, into the multidiscipline software network to direct the coupling to assure accurate fluid-structure-thermal interaction solutions; 2) loosely-coupling the Euler flow solver FEFLO to the available and proven aeroelasticity and large deformation (FEAP) code; 3) providing a coupled Euler-boundary layer capability for rapid viscous flow simulation; 4) developing and implementing improved Euler/RANS algorithms into the FEFLO CFD code to provide accurate shock capturing, skin friction, and heat-transfer predictions for HRRLS vehicles in hypersonic flow, 5) performing a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computation on an HRRLS configuration; 6) integrating the RANS solver with the FEAP code for coupled fluid-structure-thermal capability; and 7) integrating the existing NASA SRGULL propulsion flow path prediction software with the FEFLO software for quasi-3D propulsion flow path predictions, 8) improving and integrating into the network, an existing adjoint-based design optimization code.
This project consists of two parts, the first will be the post-flight analysis of data from a Delta IV launch vehicle, and the second will be a Finite Element Analysis of a CubeSat. Shock and vibration data was collected on WGS-5 (Wideband Global SATCOM- 5) which was launched on a Delta IV launch vehicle. Using CAM (CAlculation with Matrices) software, the data is to be plotted into Time History, Shock Response Spectrum, and SPL (Sound Pressure Level) curves. In this format the data is to be reviewed and compared to flight instrumentation data from previous flights of the same launch vehicle. This is done to ensure the current mission environments, such as shock, random vibration, and acoustics, are not out of family with existing flight experience. In family means the peaks on the SRS curve for WGS-5 are similar to the peaks from the previous flights and there are no major outliers. The curves from the data will then be compiled into a useful format so that is can be peer reviewed then presented before an engineering review board if required. Also, the reviewed data will be uploaded to the Engineering Review Board Information System (ERBIS) to archive. The second part of this project is conducting Finite Element Analysis of a CubeSat. In 2010, Merritt Island High School partnered with NASA to design, build and launch a CubeSat. The team is now called StangSat in honor of their mascot, the mustang. Over the past few years, the StangSat team has built a satellite and has now been manifested for flight on a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch in 2014. To prepare for the final launch, a test flight was conducted in Mojave, California. StangSat was launched on a Prospector 18D, a high altitude rocket made by Garvey Spacecraft Corporation, along with their sister satellite CP9 built by California Polytechnic University. However, StangSat was damaged during an off nominal landing and this project will give beneficial insights into what loads the CubeSat experienced during the crash. During the year, the MIHS students generated a SolidWorks (CAD software) geometry model of StangSat. This model will be imported into FEMAP (Finite Element Analysis (FEA) Software) and a finite element model wiiJ be created to predict the loads encountered during the crash of this rocket. This analysis will require learning how to import CAD models into the FEM, mesh and add constraints and concentrated masses to represent components inside the CubeSat frame, such as circuit boards, batteries and accelerometers. During the analysis the loads will be varied, in effort to duplicate the damage to the CubeSat. Results will then be peer reviewed and documented.
This project details the design and analysis of a structure to replace the interface of the P-3B nadir port with an optimized interface for science installations. A new nadir port plug has been designed to replace the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) plug (Lockheed PN 910169) currently used in Nadir ports 1 and 2 on the NASA P-3B aircraft. The plug consists of a milled frame that can be outfitted with customizable flat plates to meet a broad range of science needs. The frame slides into place using the existing P-3B rail system using a lever and tie-rod assembly. The seal interface will contact the Fuselage skin of the aircraft and consists of a bulb E-seal that is riveted around the perimeter of the frame. The flat plate (20 inches x 31 inches) provides a large profile that can be outfitted based on science mission goals and requirements to attach multiple instruments. This is a significant increase to the aircraft capability. Previously, the OEM plug had to be modified to hold very small plates, windows, or instruments limiting the use of the ports.There were several challenges for this project that included a constrained schedule, lack of historical references, and reverse engineering. The unusually tight schedule for design, manufacture, and install limited potential approaches. In addition, design of a new interface to replace the existing plug, on an aircraft designed in the 1960's by Lockheed for the Navy with little to no documentation, required substantial reverse engineering. In order to accomplish this, a suitable method to determine interface requirements with the aircraft had to be solved. After several iterations, the solution was to implement laser scanning techniques to scan the aircraft and the OEM plug and generate a 3D model to capture the design envelope. The structure is designed to maintain a positive margin of safety when subjected to the inertial, pressure, and aerodynamic load requirements for an external installation on the P-3B, as described in the Wallops' P-3B Design Requirements 548-RQMT-0001 Rev. A . A finite element model is created in FEMAP (Finite Element Modeling And Postprocessing) and is run through NX Nastran solver to analyze the structure. After several iterations of analysis, the structure was enveloped to hold 115 pounds evenly distributed on the plate.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is currently designing and building a number of instruments that operate in the microwave and millimeter-wave bands.