Case Study: Swift Engineering, Inc. achieves safe maintenance tool-weight limits and reduces testing costs with Altair RADIOSS

Explicit Dynamic Simulation of Tool Drop on the Outer Wing of the Swift020 Unmanned Aerial System using RADIOSS®

Swift Engineering, Inc., a San Clemente-based developer of lightweight composite unmanned aerial systems, needed to define the maximum maintenance tool weight for the Swift020 UAS so that a tool dropped from 0.762 m would not cause permanent damage. To address this, Swift engaged Altair and used Altair’s RADIOSS explicit dynamic impact simulation (with models prepared in HyperMesh) to analyze tool-drop scenarios on thin-walled composite wing structures.

Altair performed parametric RADIOSS impact simulations on a full-scale Swift020 model, plotting maximum laminate compression strain versus impact energy to find the safe limit; this yielded a maximum allowable tool drop energy of 1.3 J and a corresponding maximum tool mass of 0.174 kg for the specified drop height. The Altair solution eliminated costly trial-and-error testing, reduced maintenance and component replacement time and cost, and increased reliability by delivering a validated, measurable tool-weight specification.

Swift Engineering, Inc.

William B Gianetti

Senior Research and Development Engineer