Second Prototype Will See Refinements In Wing Design And
Materials
Dassault Systèmes' CATIA has been chosen by Terrafugia,
creators of the Transition Roadable Aircraft, for 3D composite and
finite-element modeling, the company said Monday. Terrafugia will
use CATIA Analysis and CATIA Composites Design (CPD) solutions to
design and develop its beta prototype, with delivery expected in
2011.
After Terrafugia completed a successful Proof of Concept for the
first version of its Transition Roadable Aircraft in early June,
the design team began planning the second vehicle. Having spent
several years developing the initial Transition prototype,
Terrafugia identified multiple ways in which they wanted to adjust
the original design, including experimenting with alternate
materials and sizing for the wings. In order to analyze the way
different materials would bend or move under various conditions,
the company required a solution with advanced 3D composite
ply-modeling, dedicated part-modeling and material behavior
simulation capabilities.
Impressed by its success with Dassault Systèmes’
SolidWorks 3D design suite, which it began using in March 2009,
Terrafugia adopted CATIA Analysis and CATIA CPD as
composite-focused complements to its existing SolidWorks
infrastructure. According to Ben Zelnick, engineer at Terrafugia
“CATIA is a great complement to our SolidWorks solution.
Being able to have a full digital model of a ply-by-ply layout will
allow us to conduct accurate structural analyses, which is
invaluable in reducing the weight of the Transition. In fact, we
recently correlated an analysis of a CATIA model of a portion of
the structure closely to a sample tested in our
facility.”
Jacques Leveillé-Nizerolle, CEO, CATIA, Dassault
Systèmes added “We are pleased that DS
SolidWorks’ design-centric customers can now benefit from
CATIA’s leading composites virtual design and analysis
applications to successfully meet their composites needs. This will
complement CATIA’s full PLM strategy which is based on
delivering a complete end-to-end PLM composites solution on a
single platform, from design to simulation and
manufacturing.”
For the upcoming second prototype, Terrafugia’s design
team is using CATIA Analysis to create preliminary design
simulations rapidly, easily and within a familiar CAD environment.
The solution allows the team to optimize its designs based on
product performance specifications and to quickly make updates
after real-world testing. The company is also using CATIA CPD to
build and test reinforcement spars on the prototype’s
structural panels. Terrafugia says CATIA CPD gives it the ability
to verify whether it can feasibly produce what is designed and the
ability to perform simulation directly in the same environment.
The Transition Roadable Aircraft can cruise up to 450 miles at
115+ mph, take off and land at local airports, drive at highway
speeds on any road and fit in a normal suburban garage space. The
two-seat vehicle has front wheel drive on the road and a propeller
for flight, transforming from plane to car in thirty seconds. Both
modes are powered by unleaded automobile gasoline. By giving pilots
a convenient ground transportation option, the Transition reduces
the cost, inconvenience and weather sensitivity of personal
aviation.
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