Aerospace Structures I — Analysis Projects

Applied ANSYS Workbench to simulate a satellite structure subjected to 10g launch acceleration loads. Covered aerospace failure modes including composite damage, bonded joint failures, fatigue, corrosion, BVID, and hail damage. Post-processed elastic strain contour plots and total deformation results to evaluate structural margins under worst-case launch loading.

Analyzed failure modes in the James Webb Space Telescope and studied Challenger and Columbia disaster case studies using Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagrams and FMEA methodology. Performed ANSYS FEA on an aircraft fuselage section under cabin pressure differential loading — extracting von Mises stress, total deformation, and identifying window cutout stress concentrations.

Performed iterative ANSYS structural analysis on a valve component subjected to increasing internal pressure loads. Meshed the geometry, applied boundary conditions, and evaluated total deformation and von Mises stress against MMPDS material allowables for AISI 4135 steel. Iterated load cases to determine the failure pressure and margins of safety using aerospace design factors.

Performed static structural FEA in ANSYS on an aircraft wing geometry under aerodynamic lift loading. The wing was fixed at the root (simulating attachment to the fuselage) and a 1,000 Pa pressure load was applied to the underside. Results showed a maximum total deformation of 0.0071 m at the trailing edge tip and a maximum principal stress of 3.4154 MPa on the underside near the root attachment. Using Aluminum 6061-T6 with a factor of safety of 1.4, the allowable stress was determined to be 8.782 MPa (5.4985 MPa with a 15% pocket margin). The maximum lift pressure the wing can withstand before exceeding the adjusted allowable is approximately 1,609 Pa.