AnalySwift, LLC, a provider of efficient high-fidelity modeling software for composites and other advanced materials, announced on July 9 that AertoTex UK has licensed its powerful VABS software for the simulation of composite rotor blades, propellers, and other slender structures.
Located in the United Kingdom, AeroTex UK has extensive experience in the area of structural dynamics, including building and analyzing complex structural models. The aerospace company specializes in working with rotorcraft and rotor blades, including propellers.
“At AeroTex we undertake designs on complex aerospace structures using multi-disciplinary analyses, seeking to minimize loads and vibration and improve aeroelastic stability margins,” said Colin Hatch, lead structural consultant at AeroTex UK.
“VABS gives us a potent tool in our armoury, enabling us to create models of rotor blades and propellers as equivalent beam structures with faster design cycles compared with large 3D finite element models. VABS allows us to have a refined model in the structure cross-section giving us the ability to model individual composite plies without compromising the design cycle time,” Hatch added.
“We are very pleased to have our VABS software selected by AeroTex to help meet their sectional analysis needs for composite propellers and rotor blades,” said Allan Wood, president and CEO of AnalySwift. “They are heavily involved in the rotorcraft area, which coincides nicely with VABS. As a versatile cross sectional analysis tool, VABS delivers high-fidelity results early on, reduces design cycle, and shortens time to market.”
“The VABS program is a uniquely powerful tool for modeling composite blades and other slender structures, commonly called beams,” said Dr. Wenbin Yu, chief technology officer of AnalySwift. “VABS reduces analysis time from hours to seconds by quickly and easily achieving the accuracy of detailed 3D FEA with the efficiency of simple engineering models.
“With VABS, engineers can calculate the most accurate, complete set of sectional properties such as torsional stiffness, shear stiffness, shear center for composite beams made with arbitrary cross-section and arbitrary material. It can also predict accurate detailed stress distribution for composite beams, which are usually not possible with 3D FEA for realistic composite structures,” Yu added.
With continuous development spanning nearly 30 years for performance and robustness, VABS is used in the aerospace and wind energy industries for modeling complex composite rotor blades, wing section design, and simulating other slender composite structures.
