NASA engineers streamline vibration and shock analysis for safer rockets

NASA said its engineers at Kennedy Space Center’s Dynamic Environments Group have streamlined vibration and shock analysis using a commercial software tool to boost mission safety.

NASA said the group works with the Launch Services Program Office to make sure spacecraft and rockets can endure harsh vibration, shock, stress or other physical forces, which strengthens mission safety. Engineers used a commercial digital software tool in a new way to create a standardized finite‑element modeling workflow (a computer‑based method that breaks a structure into small parts to predict how it reacts to forces) that strengthens shock and vibration analysis and prepares hardware for launch extremes.

Brian Beaver, chief of the Flight Analysis Division at Kennedy’s Launch Services Program Office, said the computer‑based method predicts how rockets and spacecraft behave under extreme conditions before engineers build hardware and identifies weak spots and failure risks early for correction. NASA said the Dynamic Environments Group first applied the software during certification of a commercial launch provider’s rocket chosen for a NASA mission. The commercial launch partner supplied vibration testing data but did not provide shock testing for its rocket.

NASA said because shock data were missing, the group deemed shock testing necessary and used its own template to run what‑if assessments, view structural responses and answer questions that would have required lengthy manual modeling. The team confirmed the provider’s flight‑environment test data and the resulting analysis gave fresh insights about shock occurring during transport. Alex Hardt said the team is using a decade‑old tool that is not normally employed by dynamic‑environment specialists and is applying it to a new area of dynamics.

Alex Hardt explained that they set the severity levels for random vibration and shock, then verify that every part destined for future rockets meets those test levels to maximize component longevity. “We are using a tool that’s existed for decades, but it’s not normally used by the dynamic environments disciplines,” Alex Hardt said. Alex Hardt said the software delivers valuable insight quickly when verifying a provider’s system and has already revealed deep understanding that normally requires considerable effort.

Alex Hardt said visualizing non‑intuitive dynamics with finite‑element models (digital representations of a structure used in finite‑element analysis) highlights the software’s benefits for learning, efficiency and NASA’s people‑focused culture. NASA said although engineers build rockets and spacecraft to absorb shocks and vibrations, those forces can cause wear and tear or lead to flight failures, especially during launch and ascent.

For decades engineers estimated shock and vibration settings using rules of thumb or scaled past data, a method that worked but depended heavily on engineering judgment and basic approximations from earlier missions. NASA said because dynamic‑environment engineers seldom use finite‑element modeling, they must relearn complex workflows; the new software supersedes older tools and offers a standard template that guides them faster and more thoroughly through vibration and shock analyses.

NASA said finite element analysis is a powerful simulation method that divides a complex structure into smaller parts, so computers can accurately predict a spacecraft’s or rocket’s response to specific forces or launch settings. NASA said identifying issues early is crucial because engineers can fix them on the ground, whereas engineers cannot repair them after a rocket leaves the launch pad. The workflow helps engineers share knowledge, update assessments with flight data and improve modeling skills.

The new capability has saved months by letting the team perform analysis on its own instead of waiting for reports and by uncovering risks that the team had not considered before. NASA said its Launch Services Program Office launches rockets that carry spacecraft for Earth observation, planetary exploration and universal science, ranging from weather satellites to space telescopes and Mars rovers. The Launch Services Program team continually adopts new tools such as this software to maximize the agency’s practical chance of success on every mission.