Shock & Vibration

We were approached by an aerospace company to analyze their system for use in a spacecraft. They were required by their customer to virtually test their system for Harmonic Vibration, Random Vibration, and Shock per the aerospace standard RTCA DO-160G (sections 7 and 8) before performing physical testing with a group of assets on a vibration table.

DO-160G provides specifications for vibration testing. Its primary purpose is to guide physical testing but we adapted it where appropriate to guide our virtual testing. We modeled the system in SolidWorks and analyzed the model in ANSYS Workbench. Special provisions had to be made for component connections as dynamic analyses of this sort limit the available connections to linear (i.e. no frictionless or frictional type connections).

The results have been used by our customer to validate bolting systems and guide their physical testing.