News & Events

ICONA

Innsbruck/Austria December 2006

In July 2006, INTALES GmbH, the ‘Institut für Mathematik’ and the ‘Institut für Grundlagen der Bauingenieurwissenschaften’ of the Leopold Franzens Universität Innsbruck, started the research programme ICONA:

Innovative COncept for Nonlinear Analysis of Lightweight Structures

ASTRIUM Space Transportation provides the consortium with the data and know-how. Highly experienced specialists from the engineering division at Les Mureaux joined the team and will actively support the research activities.

ICONA will strengthen the already advanced competencies of the consortium towards European leadership in the field. The development is clearly oriented to market needs and serves to determine the load capability of complex highly loaded aerospace structures in an enhanced manner. With the proposed innovative strategy, the verification method for future launch vehicles and aircraft will become more reliable, cost and time efficient, simpler in handling and more easily reproduced than with current nonlinear approaches.

Two theses are envisaged to compile the main project elements:

Load case selection process and data bank design
Eigenvalue extraction from substructure models
Implementation of a more efficient shell element for FE analyses
Sensitivity study concept to investigate robustness of structures

The project is managed by experienced team leaders. Development results, achieved during this programme, can be immediately implemented into running and future verification processes for aerospace applications.

ICONA is the 1st part of a project which will take at least 4 years of development. One Ph.D student and 3 Diploma students have been engaged in the project throughout the summer of 2006. The ambition of the development team is to achieve early results in order to start application tests under industrial conditions soon.

Team:

Christophe Allorge	ASTRIUM Space Transportation
Dr. Herbert Haller	INTALES GmbH Innsbruck
Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr.Michael Oberguggenberger	Institut für Grundlagen der Bauingenieurwissenschaften, UIBK
Mag. Robert Winkler	Ph.D
Univ.-Prof. Dr.Alexander Ostermann	Institut für Mathematik, UIBK
Dr. Mechthild Thalhammer	Institut für Mathematik, UIBK
Christof Neuhauser	Diploma
Julian King	Diploma
Bernhard Schmelzer	Diploma

The university part of the project is financed by TransIT the Tyrolean Service Center for Research and Economy at the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck (UIBK).

www.ibft.uibk.ac.at
www.uibk.ac.at/mathematik
www.transIT.ac.at
www.space.eads.net
www.transit.ac.at/service/transferprojekte/aktuelle/icona.html

Released: December 26, 2006