• Structural Engineering - Design, Configuration and Verification
• Thermal Engineering - Design and Analysis
• Advanced Life Support - Thermal and Environmental Control
• Mechanical and Electromechanical Design
• Mechanisms - Design, Analysis, and Verification
• Aerothermodynamics and Propulsion

Structural Engineering, Design, Configuration, and Verification

The structural engineering group has developed significant expertise in the aerospace and automotive industry. Specific knowledge and expertise exists in the area of static and dynamics, both linear and non-linear (geometrical and material non-linear phenomena), three dimensional contact, friction, (post-)buckling, thermo-elastic analyses, optimization, reliability, fluid-structure interaction, vibro-acoustics, damage tolerance verification, and fatigue and fracture mechanics.

Thermal Engineering - Design and Analysis

The thermal engineering group has expertise in thermal design related activities from preliminary definitions (hardware related to extreme or benign temperature) to verification activities including analysis tasks, using commercial space dedicated software and related methodologies as well as thermal testing campaigns of space systems.

Thermal Analysis for Space Data Exchange

The application of STEP for thermal analysis for space models and analysis results data is implemented in a protocol called STEP-TAS which provides a tool neutral format for data exchange and archiving. With the development and application of STEP-TAS, AOES thermal and software engineers have built up the experience in defining STEP-based data models, implementations in software libraries, and development of tool interfaces.

Advanced Life Support - Thermal and Environmental Control

The ECLS engineering group has significant expertise in process design and analysis as well as in technology development related to advanced life support activities. Specific technology developments in the fields of air, water and waste recycling, food production use the expertise of a pluri-disciplinary team (chemical engineering, physics, microbiology, mechanical engineering, process engineering, electronic engineering) to support projects on technical and managerial levels.

Analyses and simulations are conducted and disseminated with up-to-date industrial applications (ESATAN, ESARAD, EcosimPro, Matlab/Simulink, Excel, CFD-RC).

Mechanical and Electronic Design and Manufacturing

A multidisciplinary AOES team of structural, thermal, and electronic engineers designs and manufactures equipment for supporting (ground support equipment, GSE) and testing a large variety of spacecraft and instruments. Special installation procedures are developed for the installation of the equipment especially designed for the tests on space flight hardware like thermal vacuum tests and vibration tests.

CATIA V5 is used for the design of the mechanical parts or systems.

The design of GSE is based on system requirements, the identification of the performances of the equipment to be designed, and the testing/verification of it after the completion of the design phase. In particular, the design of digital electronic systems based on field programmable gate arrays is performed.

Mechanisms - Design, Analysis and Verification

Mainly in the space domain, expertise has been built up for the design, analysis, and verification of mechanisms. This expertise is being utilized in the services provided by the mechanisms team:

• Support and contribution to the establishment of space mechanisms engineering standards
• Establishment of requirement specifications for mechanism systems
• Conceptual definition of space mechanisms
• Mechanism engineer support for system level mission definition studies, technology development activities and projects.
• Identification of enabling mechanism technologies for future space missions
• Analysis of mechanisms using rigid, flexible multi-body, and fully non-linear finite element approach

Aerothermodynamics and Propulsion

The scope of technical functions in aerothermodynamics and propulsion ranges from continuum subsonic, transonic to supersonic and hypersonic flows. In the subsonic and transonic flows regimes, the technical expertise includes, but is not limited to, lubrication analysis, free surface sloshing mechanic, base-flow buffeting, launcher fairing thermal control, and parachute landing design. In the supersonic and hypersonic flows regimes, it includes nozzle plume and structure interaction, nozzle performance design, re-entry aerodynamics and heating analysis, rudder design and plume structure interaction in launcher during ascent. Moreover, in the rarefied flow regime, expertise in contamination assessment and aerodynamics for satellite is also provided. The methodology is based on analytical engineering assessment; computational fluid dynamics (CFD) detailed analysis and direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method.

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