AFD consultants have developed extensive knowledge and skills in the field of fixed wing and rotary wing thin-walled structural design. The fundamental engineering principles for designing such structure are also applicable to space vehicles.

The materials and production techniques required for satellites and spacecraft are similar to those being utilized for the latest civil and military air vehicles (i.e. CFRP / Aluminium Alloy). Both in aerospace and space applications, the designer must always strive for a lightweight, stiff and efficient structure.

The operating environments for satellites and spacecraft are also similar to the operating environments of the latest fighter jets (e.g. Eurofighter / JSF / F22) in that both have to operate at the extremes of temperature also cater for severe acoustic conditions associated with the jet / rocket engines.

AFD consultants have performed vibration, thermal, static and fatigue analyses on thin-walled structures for aerospace vehicles using traditional methods from recognised textbook sources such as 'Bruhn', 'Roark', 'Timoshenko', 'ESDU' and so forth. AFD consultants are now looking forward to applying this knowledge in the design of the next generation of space vehicles.

AFD consultants are proficient in the use of the industry standard FEM tools: MSC.NASTRAN/PATRAN for performing linear static (SOL101) analyses and normal modes (SOL103) analyses. A specialist FEM capability can also be offered to solve problems related to acoustic noise, impact, crash, explosion, large deformation non-linearity, material non-linearity and contact analyses.