b'Aerospace | Engineer InnovationVirtual Testing Through Integrated Sine Control in Simcenter SoftwareBy Gilles Patanchon, ARIANE GROUPE and Flavio DAmbrosio and Alex Carrella, Siemens PLM SoftwareSatellites have to be tested to ensurenon-linearities in the virtual testing they have the capability to withstandcontext. All developments and the extreme conditions encounterednumerical results have been financed during launch and flight operations.by the AOC (Advanced Operational This step is called qualification testingCertification) Walloon research and is implemented by means ofProgram.extensive laboratory test campaigns, including for instance vibration,Validation and industrial casethermal, or acoustic testing. SuchWe validated the implementation of environmental tests are mandatory forSimcenter Testlab sine control in the satellites in order to reduce the risks ofSimcenter Samcef solver by comparing failure during launch and mission.numerical and experimental results. A Swept-sine tests are considered as afree / clamped plate, shown in Figure 1, backbone test in order to simulate awas selected as the academic structure low-frequency vibration environment.for this task. The campaign test was Regulated by ECSS standards, sineexecuted by Ariane Group in Bordeaux. vibration test is implemented by rigidlyThe numerical model was realized using connecting the satellite to a shakeronly two degrees of freedom table and vibrating it with prescribedrepresenting the modal properties of levels. For the base excitation to bethe beam as described in Figure 1. compliant with the targeted level, the drive spectrum sent to the shaker isThe standard set-up consists of a constantly updated by a control system.piezoelectric accelerometers stocked at One of the difficulties of the testthe end of the plate as notching sensor campaign is to optimize the controland on the shaker table as control parameters (swept rate, compressionsensor. In order to be able to control the factor, notching values, etc.) in order tosystem at its characteristic frequencies validate the ECSS standards(resonance and anti-resonance), requirements. Until now this proceduredifferent scenarios are analyzed with was done directly on the test rig. Thedifferent values of compression factors, aim of virtual testing is to avoid thissweep rate and profile control level. experimental research of controlFigure 1 shows that the numerical parameter using Finite Elements (FE) models to reduce costs, over testing, risks and time of all experimental campaigns.To reach this aim, a closed-loop control model based on the implementation in Simcenter Testlab software was integrated into the Simcenter Samcef solver. Then the virtual controller was validated with some academic and industrial applications, including the Galileo satellite. Finally, an approachFigure 1: Test rig and numerical model for fixed / free beamwas developed to account for structurala) Test rig used to validate numerical approachb) Numerical model57'