New model-based tool in AeroPro software minimizes test rig errors to speed up complex, dynamic tests of large aerospace substructures.
Spencer Neitz - System Integration Engineer demonstrates Model-Assisted Compensation (MAC), a new tool in AeroPro designed to minimize control errors so that complex, dynamic tests of large substructures can be run at much faster speeds. Using a four-actuator bending beam, he applies MAC during a sinusoidal test, resulting in a dramatic reduction in test rig errors. Fewer errors enable faster testing - on a large aerospace test article with a complex arrangement of dozens of actuators, these increased speeds could reduce testing times by weeks, months, or even years.
Introduced in AeroPro 7.60, MAC uses a real-time analysis model, comprising a reduced order specimen model and virtual test rig, running in sync with a physical test system via shared, high-speed reflective memory.
Valve commands needed to correct errors flow from the analysis model and play out on the physical rig. Force and displacement signals flow from the rig back to the model, and the process repeats at each clock tick.
An error plot of the sinusoidal test conducted on the bending beam shows the immediate, significant reduction in errors across all four actuators upon application of MAC.
