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Tightly Coupled Aerothermoelastic Analysis Tool for Hypersonic Vehicle Structures

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Air Force
Contract: FA8650-09-M-3929
Agency Tracking Number: F083-181-0449
Amount: $99,972.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: AF083-181
Solicitation Number: 2008.3
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2008
Award Year: 2009
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2009-01-06
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2009-11-19
Small Business Information
215 Wynn Dr., 5th Floor
Huntsville, AL 35805
United States
DUNS: 185169620
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: Yes
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Essam Sheta
 Manager Aerospace and Defense Sys.
 (256) 726-4800
 tsb@cfdrc.com
Business Contact
 Deborah Phipps
Title: Contracts Specialists
Phone: (256) 726-4800
Email: dap@cfdrc.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

A tightly coupled multi-physics framework is proposed for computational aerothermoelastic simulations of hypersonic aerospace vehicles. The multiphysics framework will be developed, validated and demonstrated by enabling variable degree of coupled interactions between non-linear flexible structures, aerodynamics, and heat transfer modules. The framework will be developed by leveraging CFDRC''''s CoPhy, a sequentially tightly coupled high-fidelity multiphysics engineering analysis tool, and the Multi Disciplinary Computing Environment (MDICE) for loosely coupled aeroelastic and aerothermoelastic simulations. The Phase I effort focuses on determining the characteristics of high speed structural components and the extreme environments in which a tightly coupled aeroelastic & aerothermoelastic analysis is necessary. The feasibility of the proposed technology will be demonstrated for a set of benchmark aerothermoelastic applications. In Phase II, the efforts will be focused to minimize energy transfer errors by improving the coupling between the solvers across interfaces, improvements to the grid deformation module, engine noise modeling and enhancements to the overall framework. In addition, other thermal, structures and/or CFD modules can be identified and integrated into the MDICE framework. Demonstration of the full capabilities of the technology will be conducted for typical aerothermoelastic simulations of aerospace vehicles. BENEFIT: The proposed technology will provide an accurate and comprehensive analysis tool for truly coupled aerothermoelastic simulations of aerospace vehicles. The proposed technology will be of great interest to the Air Force to analyze interaction characteristics of fluid, structural, acoustic, thermal fields of hypersonic aerospace vehicles. The framework will also be of great interest to NASA, DoD agencies, and other aerospace private industry partners , in particular AFRL and Lockheed Martin who have been collaborating with CFDRC in this technology for several years. Ultimately, the framework will lead to improved safety of aerospace vehicles and significantly reduce the dependence on flight tests and wind tunnel testing, thereby reducing the time required to certify new military and commercial aircraft. General applications of the technology include general fluid-structure-thermal interaction problems such as heat exchanger vibration, panel flutter of space vehicles, turbomachinery blade vibrations and many others.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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