VIBROACOUSTIC ANALYSIS PROCEDURE TO OBTAIN FORCES AND

STRESSES ON AEROSPACE STRUCTURES

Reference: 2001-55
F. de la Iglesia
MEDIA Consultores de Ingeniera S.L. c/Vizcaya, 11. Las Rozas (Madrid). Spain
Phone: 00-34-917104876. Fax: 00-34-916374646. E-mail: figlesia@mediaconsult.es
J.L. Rioboo, P. Luengo, J. Santiago-Prowald
EADS-CASA Espacio. Avda. Aragn, 404 Madrid. Spain
Phone: 00-34-915863853. Fax: 00-34-917474799. E -mail: rioboo@casa-de.es

ABSTRACT
A methodology to compute forces and stresses on a typical aerospace structure made of
composite materials, when it is submitted to acoustic loads produced during a rocket
launch, is presented. These loads are usually modelled by means of a diffuse field
approach. Some commercial vibroacoustic codes reproduce this diffuse field as a
superposition of a large number of uncorrelated plane waves and the fluid structure
interaction is calculated using a combined BEM/FEM coupled response method. These
programs are able to reproduce the acceleration levels over the structure but they lack
the tools to efficiently compute the strength analysis on complex structures. This
proposed methodology combines the results of the coupled fluid/structure response and
CFRP analysis capabilities of MSC.Nastran. The displacements field for each of the
plane waves that represents the acoustic field is obtained with a BEM/FEM code and it
is imposed with a DMAP alter as the displacement solution of a Direct Frequency
Response random solution of MSC.Nastran. In this way, element forces and stresses can
be obtained with some postprocessing programs developed by EADS-CASA Espacio. A
test case study and an application to a real aerospace structure will be presented.

NOMENCLATURE
aij
f
Hr,ij
N
Pr
PSD
Wp
Wpij
Wr
Wr,ij
i
j

Weighting factor of the plane wave ij.

Bandwidth of a octave.
Transfer function of the magnitude r due to the plane wave ij.
Sound Pressure Level in dB.
Reference Pressure (2*10-5 Pa).
Power Spectral Density.
Total power spectral density per octave of the acoustical specification.
Power spectral density per octave of the plane wave ij.
Total power spectral density of the magnitude r.
Power spectral density of the magnitude r due to the plane wave ij.
Longitude of the plane wave ij.
Latitude of the plane wave ij.
Angle increment used to define the number of plane waves of the diffuse field.

INTRODUCTION

An aerospace structure is submitted to a severe acoustic noise environment during the

launcher lift off. For lightweight structures, such as communication antennas with large
reflectors or solar arrays, this acoustic load has become a relevant design load case and
these structures have to be tested in reverberant chambers to ensure that they can
withstand the acoustic loads without failure. For this reason, a great effort has been
made in the last years to obtain reliable and efficient computational methods to calculate
the acceleration levels and to solve the vibroacoustic problem in terms of structural
forces and stresses during the design process.
The most common way to model the acoustic lift-off noise is as a diffuse sound field.
References (3) and (8) have shown that a good representation of a diffuse field can be
obtained by a superposition of a large number of uncorrelated incident plane waves. The
direction of each wave is characterised by a pressure spectral density. When an incident
plane wave impinges over the structure two effects need to be considered; first, the rigid
scattering, which is a function of the structure shape, and second, the sound radiation
produced by the structure motion. These two effects are coupled producing a continuous
feedback between them.
Several numerical methods are able to treat the fluid-structure interaction problem in
complex structures. For external fluid domains the most common technique is to
employ a combined Boundary Element Method (BEM) for the fluid domain and a Finite
Element Method (FEM) for the structure. The normal modes of the structure in vacuum
are calculated with the FEM model and they are taken as the basis functions to
determine the deformation of the structure for the fully coupled problem. Some
commercial codes are able to reproduce the acceleration levels over the structure using
this procedure but they do not have any efficient tool to compute the forces and stresses
on a CFRP structure.
Some studies can be found focused in calculating stresses on structures due to random
loads, like in references (7) and (8) but they only examine the stresses in skin panels
made of isotropic materials. For this reason EADS-CASA Espacio has performed an
extensive research with the objective to solve the vibroacoustic problem in terms of
forces and stresses for any aerospace structure with CFRP materials. The research has
been carried out in two ways; first, an extensive test campaign (5) to improve the
knowledge and understanding of the fluid-structure interaction problem in large antenna
reflectors and second, the development of analysis tools to assist the design process (4).
Several approximate methods based on MSC.Nastran have been revised in reference
(4), the equivalent quasistatic method, the uncorrelated plane waves method and the
uncorrelated pressure distribution method. Although they are very useful at the early
stages of the design they do not take into account the fully coupled fluid/structure
problem.
For this reason a new methodology has been derived. The diffuse field is modelled as
the superposition of several uncorrelated plane waves. The displacements field for each
of the plane waves is obtained with a BEM/FEM code, transformed into a MSC.Nastran
output4 format and imposed with a DMAP alter as the displacement solution of a Direct
Frequency Response random solution of MSC.Nastran with as many subcases as plane
waves. The output of this solution can directly feed some in house CFRP laminates

postprocessing programs of EADS-CASA Espacio to perform the structural analysis. A

simple test case study to verify and set up the whole methodology has been carried out.
Two analyses have been performed in parallel and compared for this test case, the
computation of the accelerations on the test model due to a diffuse field using a
commercial BEM/FEM code and the new methodology using the Direct Frequency
Response random solution of MSC.Nastran.

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2.1

PROBLEM DEFINITION
DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF A STRUCTURE INMERSED IN A DIFUSSE
FIELD

A diffuse field can be modelled as a superposition of several uncorrelated plane waves

travelling through different directions (see (3) and (9)). It is assumed that the power
spectral density associated with an incident plane wave in the ij direction, defined by
the latitude and longitude , is Wpij () in Pa2 /Hz. If the different directions were not
correlated the total power spectral density would be the addition of the densities of each
plane wave. As for a rocket launcher the acoustic requirements are a number N of dB
per octave, for a specific bandwidth (6), the total power spectral density Wp is assumed
constant over such bandwidth, obtaining the following expression:
N
Pr2
(10)10
f
Where Pr is the reference pressure (2*10 -5 Pa), f is the bandwidth of the octave and N is
the sound pressure level in dB.

Wp( ) =

The space field is divided into a finite number of equiprobable directions i and j and
associated to each direction there is a solid angle and a weighting factor aij. It is
assumed that the power spectral density of the ij direction is Wpij() = aij*Wp (), where
Wp () is the total power spectral density.
If i is i (0< <360) and j is j (0< <180) the weighting factors are calculated
with the following expression.


a ij =
2 sen(i )sen i

4
2
Except for =0 and =180 . For these two cases the expression is:
1

a ij = 1 cos

2
2
Once all the problem parameters are defined, the structural response under the diffuse
field is calculated.
Let Hr,ij () be the transfer function for the plane wave in the ij direction. The power
spectral density induced by the plane wave corresponding to the solid angle of the ij
direction is:

W r ,ij ( ) = H r ,ij ( ) a ijW p

2

As all the directions are uncorrelated, it can be demonstrated for a random field that the
structural response is obtained as the sum of each plane wave spectral densities.
W r ( ) = W p ( ) H r ,ij ( ) a ij = W p ( ) H r ,ij ( ) a ij
2

i, j

i, j

Therefore, a relation between the power spectral density of any magnitude

(displacement, acceleration, forces or stresses), the acoustic power spectral density and
the transfer function between the magnitude and the plane waves forming the diffuse
field is derived.
2.2

NUMERICAL IMPLEMENTATION INTO MSC.NASTRAN

The implementation of the methodology previously presented into the MSC.Nastran

program has the following steps.
1) Calculation of the transfer functions Hr,ij ()with the BEM code.
The transfer functions Hr,ij () of the accelerations in the three axes are calculated for
each plane wave with the BEM code. These complex accelerations are transformed into
displacements. Reference Error! Unknown switch argument. shows that for
frequencies below 400Hz a typical value of =45 (26 plane waves) represents the
diffuse field with enough accuracy.
2) Generation of the structure analysis set (ASET)
An analysis set with only the displacement degrees of freedom is needed. ASET1
MSC.Nastran Cards are then generated.
3) Generation of a MSC.Nastran DMAP Module output4 format readable file
Once the displacements are calculated for each plane wave they must be transformed
into an output4 format (see Error! Unknown switch argument.).
4) Alter of the Direct Frequency Response random solution (SOL 108)
In order to calculate the superposition of the 26 plane waves displacements transfer
functions it is necessary to use the Direct Frequency Response random solution of
MSC.NASTRAN. This solution is altered to substitute the calculated displacements of
26 subcases by the displacements obtained with the BEM code for each plane wave.
This step is done with a simple DMAP alter code which reads the displacements
database previously generated in the output4 DMAP module format.

5) Postprocessing of the results

From the SOL108 MSC.Nastran solution we can obtain, by means of the MSC.Nastran
cards XYPLOT, XYPEAK, XYPRINT, all the magnitudes we need (accelerations,
forces, stresses, etc). The output2 file has all the information needed to postprocess the
in-house EADS-CASA Espacio CFRP laminates strength analysis programs, mainly
based on the PSD forces in each element of the FEM.
The whole procedure is summarised in the following flow chart:

STRUCTURAL

UNITARY PRESSURE
PLANE WAVE

NORMAL MODES

MODEL

26 PLANE WAVE BEM

LOAD CASES

DISPLACEMENTS ASET
EXCEPTING BOUNDARY
CONDITION NODES

BEM MODEL

ACCELERATIONS

DISPLACEMENTS

X Y Z

IN ASET NODES (26

SUBCASES)
IN MSC.NASTRAN
FORMAT OUTPUT4

SOL 108 MSC.NASTRAN

26 SUBCASOS
ASET
DMAP ALTER

a a a

FORTRAN

aij

x y z
FOR ALL THE ASET NODES
(26 CASES)

POSPROCESSING TOOL
OUTPUT 2
MSC.NASTRAN

.
Figure 1: Vibroacustic procedure flow chart

RESULTS

A simple structure has been chosen to set up the whole procedure. It consists in two
parallel plates connected by beams as shown in figure 2. The lower plate is clamped in
all its edges.
V1

22
21
24
23

41

26

39

25
42

37

40

35

3
8

2
7

38
12

36

11

16

10
15

20

14
19

13
18
17
Z
Y
X

Figure 2: Test case FEM model

The normal modes in vacuum have been calculated up to 200Hz. This modal base has
been imported into the BEM pre-processor and the accelerations produced by 26
different plane waves impinging over the structure are calculated. This frequency
analysis is performed between 25Hz and 175 Hz with a frequency increment of 10Hz
and a viscous damping of 2%.
A random analysis with the MSC.Nastran solution 108 (Direct Frequency Response)
has been performed, with 26 subcases. Each subcase displacement field has been
substituted by the displacement field computed in the BEM code. The coupled fluid structure dynamic response to the diffuse field is then calculated as the superimposition
of each plane wave response.
Figures 3 and 4 show the PSD of the acceleration obtained with MSC.Nastran and the
BEM code for the diffuse field loading in two nodes, node 6 at the lower plate and node
23 at the upper plate. These figures show that both accelerations are identical, therefore
these results validate the proposed procedure.

Figure 3: PSD acceleration at the node 6 Z direction

Figure 4: PSD acceleration at the node 23 Z direction

Once the methodology has been validated with the simple test case, it is going to be
applied to an aerospace reflector. This specimen has been designed, manufactured and
tested for the programme LARDAL (Large Antenna Reflector Design under Acoustic
Loads), carried out by EADS-CASA Espacio within ht e framework of an ESA contract,
which at the present time is still in progress.
It consists of a curved sandwich plate with paraboloidal shape with a square frame of
ribs in its rear surface. The dish / rib joint is manufactured by means of 8 double cleats.
The rib / rib joint is manufactured by means of 4 double cleats. This structure is
attached to a test jig. It consists of struts frame and corner fittings. Three load cells are
mounted measuring the interface forces entering through the inserts in the structure ribs
as shown in figure 5.

Figure 5: Aerospace reflector structure and test jig.

A FEM model of the structure and test jig has been done as shown in figure 6. The dish
and the ribs are modelled with shell elements and the ribs are joined to the dish and to
each other by spring elements. The FEM model for the jig is based on CBAR elements,
and the interface consists of three load cell assemblies fastened to the ribs through
inserts. These load cell assemblies themselves are modelled by means of CBAR
elements, while the load-cell/rib junction is reproduced by springs between coincident
nodes.

Figure 6: FEM model of the structure and test jig

This specimen has been tested under acoustic loads in the reve rberant chamber of the
Institute of Acoustic (CSIC) in Madrid.
The same procedure, previously described for the validation test case is going to be
performed.
From this model the following information will be obtained:
-

PSD forces at the load cells.

PSD forces at the cleats.
Margins of safety of the composite sandwich structure.
PSD acceleration at different points of the structure

CONCLUSIONS

A fully fluid-structure coupled methodology based in MSC.Nastran has been developed

to calculate accelerations, forces and stresses on a typical aerospace structure made of
composite materials. This procedure is based in using the displacement field obtained
from a BEM code as the displacement field of a MSC.Nastran direct frequency response
solution. A validation example has been set up and the results obtained with
MSC.Nastran and the BEM code are identical, therefore the postprocessing capabilities
of the MSC.Nastran program can be used to analyse the strength capabilities of a CFRP
structure.
The application to an industrial case in the framework of the programme LARDAL
(Large Antenna Reflector Design under Acoustic Loads), carried out by EADS-CASA
Espacio is currently underway.
This methodology will provide MSC.Nastran users an efficient tool to be able to
analyse the vibroacoustic problem for advanced aerospace structures taking into account
the fluid-structure coupling.

REFERENCES

(1) MSC.Nastran Advanced Dynamic Analysis Users Guide, Version 70. The MacnealSchwendler Corporation, Los ngeles, CA, May 1998.
(2) MSC.Nastran DMAP Module Dictionary, Version 68. . The Macneal- Schwendler
Corporation, Los ngeles, CA, 1995.
(3) Capitaine, A. and Lome, J.M. Prediction de la response dynamique dune
structure dans un champ acoustique diffus. Correlation avec des tests. Proceedings
of the European Conference on Spacecraft structures and Mechanical Testing. Paris,
June 1994.
(4) Rioboo, J.L. Vibro-Acoustic Analysis tools for antenna reflector design.
Proceedings of the European Conference on structures and Mechanical Testing.
Braunschweig (Germany), November 1998.
(5) Rioboo, J.L., Santiago-Prowald, J. and Garca Prieto, R. Qualitative vibroacustic
response prediction of antenna-like structures during launch into orbit .
Proceedings of the European Conference on structures and Mechanical Testing.
Noordwijk (Netherlands), November 2000.
(6) Faust, M., Lundqvist, T. and Goranson, P. Vibro-acoustic analyses of a spacecraft
solar-array stack in a reverberant chamber. Proceedings of the European
Conference on structures and Mechanical Testing. Braunschweig (Germany),
November 1998.
(7) Clarkson, B.L. Stresses in Skin Panels Subjected to Random Acoustic Loading.
The aeronautical journal, Vol. 72, 1968, pp. 1000-1010.
(8) Witting, M. Modelling of diffuse sound field excitations and dynamic response
analysis of light weight structures. Ph. D. Thesis, Munchen technical university,
Munich (Germany),1999.
(9) de la Iglesia, F. and Garca Fogeda P. Dynamic behaviour of a rectangular
unbaffled plate inmersed in a diffuse field. Fifth International Congress on Sound
and Vibration. Australia, December 1997.

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