The CREATE Program: Design and Analysis Tools for DoD Weapon Systems

CREATE/ERS: Department of Defense acquisition reform through resilient engineering and virtual prototyping in a digital environment

“…The Army Rotorcraft program, in partnership with Boeing, used Helios to generate early-design stage predictions of helicopter performance for a proposed rotor blade upgrade of the CH-47F Chinook helicopter to achieve up to an estimated 2000 pounds improved hover thrust with limited degradation of forward flight performance. 1,3,4,5 This added performance significantly enhances the combat capability of the 400 + Chinooks in the Army inventory ( Figure 4). The Army Joint-Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) program also recently used Helios to provide decision data for proposals from four vendors.…”

“…It can handle arbitrary rotor configurations and analyze and predict prescribed maneuvers with tight coupling of rotor aerostructural dynamics. [2][3][4][5]12 A highly accurate treatment of vortex shedding from rotor blade tips using adaptive mesh refinement gives Helios the unique capability to assess the interaction of these vortices with the fuselage and nearby rotor blades. Helios provides all the benefits for rotary-winged aircraft that Kestrel provides for fixed-wing aircraft.…”

“…The overarching goal of the CREATE-Ships project is to develop software that enables comprehensive exploration of trade-space design options for complex maritime systems; provides confidence in the results of computational predictions in required disciplines across all phases of the acquisition process; and meets required acquisition timelines for DoD clients, primarily the US Navy. [1][2][3][4][5] The CREATE-Ships project is currently fielding four physics-based engineering software programs:…”

“…RSDE provides the following critical capabilities: • generates a range of ship concept options and allows selection of optimum solutions; • develops physics-based response surfaces to act as surrogates for full-physics analyses in the concept design process; • performs hierarchical, multidisciplinary design optimization, in which a top-level ship-based function, for example, cost, is optimized subject to constraints at the individual discipline level. [1][2][3][4][5]14 Employing the concept of design space exploration, engineers and naval architects can provide data for decision makers on the impact of trade-offs in range, speed, armament, and aviation support on the size-and, in large measure, the cost-of a proposed ship concept. RSDE can generate tens of thousands of candidate ship designs with varying hullforms, including compartment and machinery arrangements.…”

“…• synergy in software development and integration using a common product model that can be shared with other activities, eliminating inefficient and time-consuming resetting of the same ship modeling inputs when using different analysis methods. [1][2][3][4][5][15][16][17] The IHDE software products address all aspects of the time-to-solution issue, with the exception of the execution of hydrodynamics solvers, expected to be incorporated at a later date.…”