In Plain Terms; Breakdown Of Aerospace Engineering

NASA Deputy Administrator Tours Bigelow Aerospace (201102040002HQ)


Image by NASA HQ PHOTO

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver is given a tour of the Bigelow Aerospace facilities by the company’s President Robert Bigelow on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, in Las Vegas. NASA has been discussing potential partnership opportunities with Bigelow for its inflatable habitat technologies as part of NASA’s goal to develop innovative technologies to ensure that the U.S. remains competitive in future space endeavors. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Control engineering is the study of mathematical modeling of the dynamic behavior of systems and designing them, usually using feedback signals, so that their dynamic behavior is desirable (stable, without large excursions, with minimum error) applies to the dynamic behavior of aircraft, spacecraft, propulsion systems, and subsystems that exist on aerospace vehicles. Aerospace structures – design of the physical configuration of the craft to withstand the forces encountered during flight. Aerospace engineering aims to keep structures lightweight by way of computer numerical controlled CNC manufacturing and other processes.

Materials science is related to structures; aerospace engineering also studies the materials of which the aero-structures are to be built. New materials with very specific properties are invented, or existing ones are modified to improve their performance.

Solid mechanics, which is closely related to material science is solid mechanics, deals with stress and strain analysis of the components of the vehicle. Nowadays there are several Finite Element programs such as MSC Patran/Nastran which aid engineers in the analytical and aerospace manufacturing process.

Aeroelasticity – the interaction of aerodynamic forces and structural flexibility, potentially causing flutter, divergence, etc.

Avionics – the design and programming of computer systems on board an aircraft or spacecraft and the simulation of systems.

Risk and reliability – the study of risk and reliability assessment techniques and the mathematics involved in the quantitative methods.

Noise control – the study of the mechanics of sound transfer.

Flight test – designing and executing flight test programs in order to gather and analyze performance and handling qualities data in order to determine if an aircraft meets its design and performance goals and certification requirements.

The basis of most of these elements lies in theoretical mathematics, such as fluid dynamics for aerodynamics or the equations of motion for flight dynamics. However, there is also a large empirical component. Historically, this empirical component was derived from testing of scale models and prototypes, either in wind tunnels or in the free atmosphere. More recently, advances in computing have enabled the use of computational fluid dynamics to simulate the behavior of fluid, reducing time and expense spent on wind-tunnel testing. For additional information, visit www.arnoldeng.com to learn more.

Arnold Engineering is an established source of supply for complex machining, aircraft parts manufacturing, CNC machinery, aircraft sheet metal, aircraft design and more. For more information please visit http://www.arnoldeng.com