SBIR-STTR Award

This project is a two-fold innovation. The TRASYS Radiation Program will be converted to a Silicon Graphics IRIS engineering workstation, and an accompanying CAD software package will be developed to interactively construct TRASYS surface radiation models. The newly created version of TRASYS, including the CAD package, will be simple and easy to use for interactively constructing multi-surface radiation models. An existing CAD package (CAD/SINDA) and a finite-element unstructured grid generator (GEN/SINDA) used in developing thermal structure models for SINDA will be the starting points for Phase I. With minimum changes, CAD/SINDA can be used to develop the surface geometry for radiation models. After the surface geometry for the radiation model has been developed with the CAD program, the user presses the IRIS command key, which instructs the CAD program to create an output file. This file contains sufficient geometric data to construct a finite-element computational grid network for the model surface. GEN/SINDA currently computes structural grids for SINDA. GEN/SINDA will be modified in Phase I to produce surface grid networks only. Color graphic plot software that is currently available in both CAD/SINDA and GEN/SINDA will display the surface mesh at various points during TRASYS model development. When satisfied with the surface grid network, the user gives another key stroke command which instructs the program to output a file containing the coordinates of the points and the line and surface radiation definitions in the proper format for TRASYS input. TRASYS then computes surface radiation conductors which can then be passed directly to SINDA to compute the structural temperature response.Commercial applications of this type of technology are limited. However, those who currently use the TRASYS in the commercial arena would have a definite need for this technology. Prime contractors of NASA's major programs that require radiation analyses in the design of hardware could effectively use this technology.TRASYS, radiation, CAD, interactive graphicsSTATUS: Phase I Only