Engineer's Toolbox:
Testing composites on NASA's Ares V space launch vehicle
HyperSizer software was used for composite analysis on several parts of the Ares V space launch vehicle, including the shroud that opens to release the Altair Lunar Lander.
What do you get when you combine HyperSizer structural sizing software from Collier Research and Abaqus Finite Element Analysis (FEA) from SIMULIA? A powerful tool that allows engineers to streamline the process of design optimization for projects like NASA's Ares V launch vehicle shroud structure, which makes significant use of composites.
To accomplish this level of composite-specific analysis automation, NASA is using a two-part combination of software tools. The first software is FEA, in the form of Abaqus. The other type of software, HyperSizer, is used to perform most of the composite analysis and sizing optimization. First developed by NASA in the late 1980s, HyperSizer has been commercially developed and sold by Collier Research Corporation since 1995.
During flight, the shroud of the Ares V separates into four petals to release the Altair Lunar Lander. In the design of this structure, the aerodynamic pressure on the shroud is resolved into internally distributed forces. Abaqus determines the load path/direction and how much load is in the stiffened panel and the ringframe. HyperSizer then analyzes (or “sizes”) the panels’ cross-sectional dimensions and layups to the Abaqus computed load, reducing structural weight, establishing margins of safety for all load cases and all potential failure modes, and creating the stress report for aircraft airworthiness certification, says Craig Collier, president of Collier Research.
NASA Ares V composite shroud structural components displaying HyperSizer optimization zones.
HyperSizer incorporates almost all composite analyses required for aerospace structures in a comprehensive user interface that couples very tightly the individual analyses and their corresponding margins-of-safety stress reporting. Starting with importing FEA-computed internal element unit forces from the global finite element model of the vehicle’s panels and beams, HyperSizer solves for hundreds of different failure modes very rapidly using material allowables and its failure criteria that are specifically correlated to test results. Its rapid analyses allow full vehicle models to be analyzed to hundreds of load cases while also including stress/strain gradients from local detail effects. The software optimizes a design by surveying millions of candidate dimensions and laminates, finding optimum variables down to the ply level in a matter of minutes.
Abaqus analysis technology is used to perform implicit and explicit FEA, including static, dynamic, impact, and thermal analyses — all powered with robust contact and nonlinear material options. Optimization using Abaqus and HyperSizer follows an iterative process that begins with the transfer of data from Abaqus’ initial model to HyperSizer and continues until a convergence of internal load paths is reached, yielding a fully optimized structure. The Ares V’s payload shroud structure serves as an example of this optimization.
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Collier Research Corporation
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SIMULIA (Dassault Systèmes brand that includes Abaqus)
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