Case Study: Auburn University uses MSC Adams to model rope behavior and predict wear rates

Sample of Auburn University Projects Utilizing MSC Adams

Auburn University used MSC Software’s Adams on a senior design project for the 2016 AFRL University Design Challenge. The team built the TRIAD, a Tactical Rope Insertion Assist Device designed to help soldiers descend quickly, and needed to model the flexible rope and the device during development.

Using MSC Software Adams, Auburn University simulated the rope with beam elements that matched the behavior of the Nylon rope used in practice and created scripts for quick model building and additional runs. The simulations exposed issues in the preliminary designs that also appeared in testing, and those issues were addressed in the final design and competition prototype. Auburn also used Adams to develop user-written subroutines and a plugin to predict wear rates inside an enclosure, using experimental wear coefficients to calculate contact forces, contact area, wear rate, and total wear over time.

Auburn University

David Beale

Professor