Using Advanced Computational Engineering Software to Meet Aerospace & Defense Industry Challenges

Advanced computational engineering software and additive manufacturing are now delivering solutions that offer innovation and efficiency together.

Reverse Engineering Technology

A company was retrofitting older avionics and needed a CAD model of the panel to see how it would fit.

CAM Software

HyperMILL ® CAM software and 5-axis machining is being used to make parts for an advanced NASA satellite mission.

Development and Verification of Body Armor Target Geometry Created Using Computed Tomography Scans

Previous methods of target geometry can be replaced by more accurate computer scanning technology.

A 'STEP' Forward for Product Lifecycle Management

CAD is constantly changing, which predicates the need for a solution to share validated and accurately translated data.

Reusable Rapid Prototyped Blunt-Impact Simulator

Rapid prototyping (RP) is the term most commonly used to describe additive manufacturing technologies. An additive manufacturing technology is any manufacturing process that fabricates a part...

Designing a High-Speed Decoy Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

Drone aircraft and their uses have been evolving quickly, supported by a great deal of ongoing research. One area of increasing interest is the decoy drone, designed to mimic the...

Using the Full CAD-CAM-CNC Process Chain in Ultrasonic and Conventional 5-Axis Machining

DMG MORI manufactures a wide variety of conventional chip-cutting and ultrasonic machining centers for OEMs and production job shops serving the...

CAM Software Technology Keeps Pace with Aerospace Manufacturing Challenges

Aerospace industry component manufacturing is in a large growth cycle. Advancements to materials and engine efficiency have created clear benefits for replacing a...

GPS Enabled Semi-Autonomous Robot

The primary objective of this research is to integrate GPS and local sensory data to allow a robot to operate semi-autonomously outside of a laboratory environment. The Pioneer 3-AT, a robust platform...

Quality Control for Additive Manufacturing Parts Using Non-Destructive Testing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is growing in importance as a fabrication process for the space industry, enabling weight and cost savings through optimized designs...

Improving the Surface Finish of Additive Manufactured Parts

South West Metal Finishing has been working on an additive manufacturing surface treatment process for the last three years and believes it could be the future choice of aircraft...

Quality and Validation of Digital Designs for Aerospace and Defense

As aerospace and defense manufacturing becomes increasingly digitized—from the earliest design stages to the factory floor and beyond—data accuracy is fundamental to...

Using System Simulation to Manage Increasing Thermal Loads on Aircraft Fuel Systems

Today’s modern military fighter jets are like “a flying thermos bottle” according to Steve Iden, AFRL Invent Program Manager ^[1]. Many...

Designing Electronic Warfare to Regain Airborne Military Dominance

For decades, military aircraft have relied on electronic warfare (EW) solutions to protect assets and dominate airspace. The ability of the United States to detect and track...

Power-Line UAV Modeling and Simulation

The Army Research Laboratory Power-Line Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Modeling and Simulation (ARL-PLUMS) Software Tool allows a user to model, compute, and analyze the quasistatic electric and magnetic...

Optimizing Thermal Management to Meet SWaP-C Requirements

As defense systems continue to shrink, corresponding thermal management concerns expand exponentially. Designers have learned that overheating can be the downfall of even the most...

Getting It Right with Composites

"Composite design and analysis is a highly integrated activity,” said Chris Gear, Chief Technology Officer & Senior Technical Fellow for GKN Aerospace. He noted that how composite material is placed,...

Regional and Bizjets Refined and Redefined

There is definitely a degree of overlap in the regional and business jet sectors, both in terms of airframes and the engines that power them. At the high end of the market are aircraft such as the...

Altair Optimizes 3D-Printed Structures for Complex, Lightweight Designs

Altair expects to better support the use of additive manufacturing (AM), or 3D printing, by releasing new OptiStruct solver capabilities for topology optimization. The...

Testing Reality in an Increasingly Complex Design Space

The universal adoption of digital 3-D design tools has truly changed forever the way that advanced products are created, from original concept studies, development, testing, and...

Infusing Lightweight Composite Structures

Liquid resin infusion (LRI) is a proven manufacturing technology for both small- and large-scale structures for which, in most cases, experience and limited prototype experimentation is sufficient to...

Simulating Lightweight Vehicles Operating on Discrete Terrain

Engineers increasingly rely on simulation to augment and, in some cases, replace costly and time consuming experimental work. However, current simulation capabilities are...

Chrono: A Parallel Physics Library for Rigid-Body, Flexible-Body, and Fluid Dynamics

The Chrono::Engine software is a general-purpose simulator for three-dimensional multi-body problems. Specifically, the code is designed to support the...

Modeling and Simulation Techniques for Unmanned Vehicle Systems

Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle (UAV) systems have become possible in recent history thanks primarily to the effects of Moore’s Law — the doubling of processing power every 18...

The Role of Engineering Simulation in the Evolution of Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Across all domains (land, sea, and air), the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) has shown explosive growth and, as their value continues to be...

Using Laser Direct Structuring (LDS) to Create Robust Hardware Security Devices

A wide range of devices are designed to handle, convey and store sensitive information that requires varying degrees of security from protecting low level...

Prototyping with Multi-Layer Boards

As electronic components continue to move increasingly into surface- mount packages exclusively, prototype manufacturing firms are seeing a shift in the fabrication and assembly work needed to implement...