This paper on "Confirmed Verification of True Multidisciplinary Modeling and Simulation" was presented at the NAFEMS World Congress on The Evolution of Product Simulation From Established Methods to Virtual Testing & Prototyping - 24-28 April 2001, The Grand Hotel, Lake Como, Italy.

Summary

The ASAR instrument comprises five large structural panels on which are mounted a number of tile units. The central panel is mounted to a main support frame fixed to the ENVISAT satellite. The other four panels are deployed symmetrically about the center panel in a four stage deployment sequence. The deployment of each panel is provided by an open loop step motor that drives through a high reduction harmonic drive unit. Just before the deploying panel reaches its "hard" end stop, a set of 2 preloaded trigger latches are released and locks the panels rigidly together.
This paper describes how the new multidisciplinary modeling and simulation features in FEDEM have been used to predict the performance of ASAR during deployment and latching tests. The tests and comparisons were used by ESA as the final validation of the FEDEM software.
The simulation results proved that FEDEM analysis are more accurate than analytical and rigid body based models and calculations. The simulations also provided accurate results in the important frequency range as previously proven by other benchmark results [1,2,3]