NASA National Care for Advanced Materials Update

The process of writing, reviewing and editing test plans and material and process specifications is wrapping up and deadlines are being set to start receiving panels for qualification and equivalency testing.

May 2007
Completed qualification testing on ACG G30-500 193 gsm 3K plain weave fabric 36% RC. Final report will be submitted after equivalency portion is completed.

Started qualification testing on ACG 6781 S-2 glass 35% RC. There are 10 companies fabricating panels for this equivalency and one company fabricating qualification panels. Equivalency testing should start in the next few months once all the panels have been received.

June 2007
Test plans, material and process specifications for Hexcel 8552, Cytec 5250-5 and Cytec 5215 material systems have been submitted to the FAA. The Hexcel 8552 material and process specification has been approved by the FAA.

Hexcel 8552 prepreg has been shipped to the 13 companies participating in equivalency panel fabrication. One company is providing qualification panels. The panels are expected to start arriving at NCAMP in late September.

Companies fabricating test panels include:

• Gulfstream Aerospace
• Adam Aircraft Industries
• Texas Composite, Inc.
• ATK Space Systems
• Boeing Helicopters
• Scaled Composites
• Goodrich Aerostructures
• Bombardier Aerospace
• AAR Composites
• Cirrus Design Corporation
• Raytheon Aircraft Company
• Spirit AeroSystems, Inc.
• Cessna Aircraft Company
• Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc.
• Northrop Grumman Corporation
• Israel Aircraft Industries, Ltd.
• General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.
• Lockheed Martin Aero
• Comtek Advanced Structures
• Quickstep Technologies
• Cytec Engineered Materials

For more information about NCAMP visit the Web site: http://www.niar.wichita.edu/coe/ncamp.asp

Another Year, Another VISION Grant

Preparations are now under way for the 2008 VISION Grant competition. The Engineering VISION Grant was founded to encourage excellence in engineering education. The grants are awarded to engineering instructors who demonstrate an ability to develop outstanding classroom and field educational aids that utilize advanced technology. All grant submissions will be posted on the CATIA Education Community.
ENGINEERING.com is currently seeking sponsors and judges for this year's competition. Educators are encouraged to participate in this year's VISION Grant by submitting their educational material by Friday January 25, 2008. For those educators who are not planning on submitting course material, you can still participate in the competition in a judging capacity. If you are interested in being a judge for this year's competition, please contact Dave Livingstone at dlivingstone@engineering.com.

The official announcement of the 2008 VISION Grant competition will be made in October, along with the judging panel, sponsors and prizes. For more information on the Engineering Vision Grant visit www.engineeringvision.org.

CATIA Students Get Own Competition

In addition to the VISION Grant competition, 2008 will mark the first year that ENGINEERING.com will run a CATIA Student competition. The competition will begin in late January, with a submission deadline of March 31st. The competition will have students design an object using CATIA Student Version. Students will have a set of guidelines to aid them in their design. Student submissions will be judged on their ability to meet these guidelines, as well as their ability to demonstrate their knowledge of CATIA and a flare for creativity.
An official announcement will come in December, along with the announcement of a judging panel, sponsors and prizes. All contest submissions will be posted on CATIA Education Community. For more information, visit the Student Competition section of the Engineering Vision Grant website located at www.engineeringvision.org.

It’s Not Too Late to Register for a Webinar

Abaqus for CATIA V5 brings Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA) technology into the CATIA V5 user environment, making it easier than ever to bring analysis in the classroom. Professors, if you want your students to have access to complete analysis capabilities from within the CATIA V5 user environment, then AFC is perfect for your students. For CATIA V5 users who need easy access to Abaqus technology, AFC Version 2.5 makes advanced simulation more accessible than ever before. The result is a complete package for deploying proven FEA-based simulation throughout the design process.
AFC Version 2.4 offers the following major advancements

• Abaqus/Explicit-based dynamic simulation enables impact and other dynamic event modeling
• Automatic contact detection
• Self-contact modeling simulates surface folding
• Submodeling targets regions of interest for detailed stress analysis
• Cyclic symmetry modeling improves analysis efficiency and reduces model size

For more information on AFC, please visit http://www.simulia.com/products/afc_v5.html.

Join us for a one-hour Webinar to learn about the latest simulation advancements coming soon in AFC Version 2.5. For more information or to register, visit http://www.simulia.com/events/webinar_afc25.html.SIMULIA Academics programs will give a four month lease of AFC at no charge for the first five who sign up for the one-hour Webinar.