Case Study: Giant Magellan Telescope improves windshake and seismic resilience with Quartus Engineering

Giant Magellan Telescope predicts windshake for 7 sub-apertures with Quartus Engineering

Quartus Engineering was engaged by the Giant Magellan Telescope to assess structural behavior under extreme wind and seismic loads. The project's challenges involved predicting complex image motion and focus shift for its seven sub-apertures due to windshake and determining if seismic uplift at its hydrostatic bearings would necessitate protective clips during an earthquake.

The solution from Quartus Engineering involved creating high-fidelity finite element models. For windshake, they incorporated line of sight equations and mapped CFD data to predict performance. For seismic analysis, they used a nonlinear model with gap elements to simulate uplift. This high-fidelity simulation revealed critical risks and directly informed key design decisions for the telescope structure.

Giant Magellan Telescope