Space flight is an exceptionally demanding industry for new product development and quality control. Equipment often has to be lightweight, robust and durable because it is subject to challenging environments characterized by broad and extreme temperature ranges, pressure fluctuations, shock and vibration levels. Measurement equipment for space testing encompasses space payload environmental testing, force limited vibration testing (FLVT), micro-vibration and jitter testing, thermal vacuum chamber testing, rocket engine testing and more.
Aviation is a high-tech industry that drives innovation and plays a key part in the economy. Aircrafts such as planes, helicopters or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, drone) are highly complex vehicles, fully equipped with electronics that require many years of research and development and must be designed to operate safely for many years. Our portfolio for aviation testing is designed for ground vibration testing (GVT) and flight vibration testing (FVT), wind tunnel testing, aircraft landing gear and brake testing as well as jet engine testing.
Prior to its maiden flight, every aircraft undergoes a program of fundamental ground tests to ensure safe operation. These include vibration investigations, simulation of the high-level forces and shocks exerted on the landing gear, aeroelastic behavior tests in a wind tunnel and engine testing, etc. These are followed by flight tests, such as vibrational tests focusing on avionics and the aeroelastic stability of the aircraft's control surfaces.
Some of the typical testing requirements:
Ground vibration testing (GVT) is crucial process in aviation R&D and testing, involving both experimental and analytical vibration investigation. This testing is essential for determining the modal characteristics of aircraft structures. By accuractely measuring the dynamic responses of these structures to various exiction forces, GVT helps indentify natural frequencies, modal shape, and damping properties. This precise data is vital for ensuring the safety, reliability and performance of aircaft, enabling engineer to validate and optimize structual design effectively.
Flight vibration testing (FVT) is a vital procedure in aviation R&D and testing, coducted during actual flight operations to asses the actual vibrational behavior of the aircraft. This testing provide critical insides into how aircraft structure responds to real-word aerodynamic forces and operational conditions. By capturing detailed vibration data, FVT helps identify key modal characteristics such as natural frequencies, modal shape and damping ratios. This information is esstential for verifying structure integrity, and performance of aircraft, ensuring they meet stringent safety and reliability standards. Engineer uses this insights to refine and enhance aircraft designs, contributing to safter and more efficient aviation.
Aircraft landing gear and brake testing are essential procedure to ensure the safety and reliability of aircraft during the takeoff, landing and taxxing. The landing gear must withstand significant impact forces during these operations, particulary during landing when the gear absord these aircarft's weight and kinetic engery of descent. In avitation R&D and testing, these tests evaluate the performance and durability of landing gear components, including struts, wheels and brakes, under various load conditions. By simulating real-world scenerios, engineer can assess how the landing gear handles these impact forces, ensuring structual integrity and braking efficiency. This rigorous testing helps identify potential issues and ensure that the landing gear can edure the stresses of repeated uses, contributing to the safe operation of the aircraft.
Aircaft drop testing is a crucial procudure to evaluate structual integrity and stress on aircraft components during impact scenerios. In aviation R&D and testing, this testing involves dropping the aircraft or its components from a specified height to simulate the real-word impact forces experienced during hard landing or emergency situations. By assessing the dynamic responses of the aircraft, engineer can determine how well the structure absorbs, and distributes these forces, ensuring that critical components remain intact. Key measurements taken during drop testing include acceleration and impact force measurements, which provide detailed data on how the aircraft respond to the impact. Additionally, the drop testing helps evaluate the safety of occupants by analyzing how the impact affects the cabin and seating arrangement. This rigorous testing ensures that aircraft can withstand serve impact conditions, enhancing overall safety and reliability.
In aviation R&D and testing, wind tunnel measurements are essential for understanding the aerodynamic force acting on aircraft under various flow conditions. By measuring lift, drag and side forces, engineer gather precise data that are critical for optimizing design and performance. Piezolectric sensor are particilarly valuable for investigating highly dynamic phenomena due to high stiffness and natural frequency. Additionally, dynamic wind tunnel measurements help investigate the aerolastic behavior of structure like wings and control surfaces in critical flow conditions. This invovles analyzing how wind causes these structures to deform and oscillate. The detailed data from these measurements is crucial for enhancing these safety, efficiency and overall performance of aircraft.
Jet engine combustion testing is a critical process in engine development and production, focusing on investigating combustion instabilities in very hot areas. Aviation R&D testing engineers analyze these instabilities to ensure efficient and stable combustion under various operating conditions. Vibration and pressure pulsation measurements are crucial for identifying instabilities that can affect engine performance. These tests are conducted not only during development but also after manufacturing and following major overhauls. By thoroughly testing and analyzing combustion dynamics and vibrations, engineers can enhance the safety, efficiency, and longevity of jet engines.
Bird strike testing is essential for ensuring the safety and durability of aircraft structures and components. This testing involves measuring the impact forces and investigating the behavior of aircraft components when struck by birds. By simulating bird impacts, aviation R&D and testing engineers can assess how different parts of the aircraft, such as the fuselage, wings, and engines, respond to these dynamic forces. Piezoelectric force sensors, with their high stiffness and resulting high natural frequency, provide precise measurements, helping engineers identify design weaknesses. This helps optimize the structural integrity and resilience of aircraft, ensuring they can withstand such impacts and maintain safety during flight.
Battery thermal runaway testing is crucial for the safety and reliability of electric airplanes and eVTOLs. In aviation R&D and testing, this procedure involves investigating the pressure behavior during a thermal runaway process of a battery cell or module. By understanding how pressure builds and behaves during such events, engineers can optimize the design of battery modules. This includes refining the shape, material thickness, and ventilation paths to mitigate risks and enhance safety. Thorough testing and analysis help ensure that battery systems can withstand extreme conditions, contributing to the overall safety and performance of electric aviation.
Electric aircraft propulsion testing is crucial for characterizing the performance of the propulsion system, from the electric motor to the propeller. This involves measuring the rotational torque and speed to ensure optimal efficiency and reliability. An additional dynamometer setup allows for comprehensive testing by also measuring forces and moments in all directions generated by the propeller. This setup helps aviation R&D and testing engineers analyze the propulsion system's behavior under various operating conditions, ensuring that electric airplanes and eVTOLs can perform safely and efficiently. By thoroughly testing and characterizing the propulsion system, engineers can optimize design and performance, contributing to the advancement of electric aviation technology.
Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening (HASS) are critical processes in the aviation R&D and testing for validating design criteria during aircraft component development. These tests, which are part of environmental stress screening (ESS), combine extreme thermal and vibration stress to identify potential weaknesses and ensure the reliability and durability of components over their entire lifecycle.
Lightweight accelerometers with high temperature stability are crucial for accurately measuring the dynamic responses during HALT and HASS testing. By subjecting components to these rigorous tests, engineers can detect and address design flaws early in the development process, enhancing the overall safety and performance of aircraft. This thorough validation helps ensure that aircraft components can withstand the demanding environments they will encounter in service.
Hydraulic systems are crucial for aircraft operations, including flight controls, landing gear, and braking systems. In aviation R&D the testing of these systems involves measuring static and dynamic pressures under various conditions to ensure reliability and safety. Hydraulic devices like pumps, actuators, and control surfaces convert flight commands into real-time actions, directly impacting flight safety. High-performance pressure sensors for aviation applications, such as piezoresistive sensors, are essential for evaluating these pressures. These sensors offer high stability and repeatability, making them ideal for harsh aviation environments with temperature extremes, high vibration, and shock levels.
Actuator testing is essential in aviation R&D and testing to ensure the proper functioning and reliability of actuators that control critical flight surfaces such as flaps, ailerons, and rudders. These actuators are responsible for executing precise movements that directly impact an aircraft's performance and safety.
To validate actuator performance, force sensors and reaction torque sensors are employed to measure the forces and torques generated during operation. Additionally, DC-response accelerometers are used to accurately identify the position of the actuators, ensuring they respond correctly to control inputs. This thorough testing ensures that actuators will perform reliably under various flight conditions, contributing to the overall safety and efficiency of the aircraft.
Actuator testing is essential in aviation R&D and testing to ensure the proper functioning and reliability of actuators that control critical flight surfaces such as flaps, ailerons, and rudders. These actuators are responsible for executing precise movements that directly impact an aircraft's performance and safety.
To validate actuator performance, force sensors and reaction torque sensors are employed to measure the forces and torques generated during operation. Additionally, DC-response accelerometers are used to accurately identify the position of the actuators, ensuring they respond correctly to control inputs. This thorough testing ensures that actuators will perform reliably under various flight conditions, contributing to the overall safety and efficiency of the aircraft.
Actuator testing is essential in aviation R&D and testing to ensure the proper functioning and reliability of actuators that control critical flight surfaces such as flaps, ailerons, and rudders. These actuators are responsible for executing precise movements that directly impact an aircraft's performance and safety.
To validate actuator performance, force sensors and reaction torque sensors are employed to measure the forces and torques generated during operation. Additionally, DC-response accelerometers are used to accurately identify the position of the actuators, ensuring they respond correctly to control inputs. This thorough testing ensures that actuators will perform reliably under various flight conditions, contributing to the overall safety and efficiency of the aircraft.
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