ESDU: Validated engineering design methods

ESDU Series

Aerodynamics

Data and methods applicable to the project design of aircraft, guided weapons, space rockets, including:

• Atmospheric properties
• Airframe components, including effect of powerplant/airframe interactions for propeller-powered and jet aircraft
• Effect of surface imperfections on drag
• Controls, flaps and leading-edge devices
• Aircraft stability, including derivative estimation
• Internal flow and propulsion systems
• Related Tools
  • International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) app
  • Wing lift-curve slope app

Aircraft noise

Validated data on the prediction, propagation and suppression of aircraft noise, with applications beyond aerospace industry related to noise barriers and sound propagation. Includes data on noise prediction and sound propagation:

• Propulsion system noise
• Jet noise, including static-to-flight effects, propeller noise, airframe noise and boundary layer noise
• Cabin noise
• Atmospheric attenuation and ground reflection effects in the presence of wind and temperature gradients
• Attenuation provided by noise barriers

Composite structures

Data for use in the design of fiber-reinforced laminated composite structures, including:

• Failure criteria
• Plate vibration and buckling
• Bonded joint analysis
• Stress concentrations
• Calculation of basic stiffnesses and stresses, including built-in thermal stresses
• Design guidance and suggested methods

Aircraft Dynamics

Data for the stability, response and controllability of any system that can be modeled, for some part of its motion, by linear constant coefficient differential equations. Includes:

• Aircraft topics: Motion equations, conversion formulae for rotation/translation of body axes, geometric/kinematic relationships for various axis systems, direction/incidence angles and damping measures
• Lateral aircraft motion , handling qualities, loading and aeroelasticity
• Linear system design: stability, response, control and assessment
• Methods for treatment of first- and second-order systems
• Non-linear system design
• Related Tools
  • Wing lift-curve slope app

Fatigue Endurance Data

Methods and data for strength calculations for aircraft and aerospace structures, including:

• Constant amplitude stress-endurance curves (S-N curves) for aircraft materials (aluminum and titanium alloys/steels) and structural joints (riveted, bolted or bonded)
• Stress concentration factors
• Principles for designing against metal fatigue
• Statistical methods for dealing with small samples in design
• Correlated data on loading, resulting from gusts, taxing/ground operations

Fracture Mechanics

Methods and data for strength calculations for aircraft and aerospace structures, including:

• Strength analysis of cracked/flawed structures or components
• Curves of crack propagation growth rate versus stress intensity factor range under constant amplitude fatigue loading
• Principles of fracture mechanics
• Methods of compounding to obtain stress intensity factors for "real life" complex geometries from simple theoretical solutions
• Data for stress intensity factors for the complex case of a pin-loaded lug
• Crack resistance curves for aeronautical metallic materials

Fluid Mechanics

Methods and data for day-to-day evaluation of fluid flow through various piping systems for rapid, reliable estimates of fluid flow parameters, including:

• Hand calculation methods
• Computer programs based on empirically-derived correlations
• Numerical methods

Heat Transfer

Methods and data to evaluate or predict the performance of heat transfer equipment and the costing of heat exchangers, including:

• Step-by-step calculation methods
• Single-phase forced and free convection in straight, annular and coiled tubing, together with the pressure loss and heat transfer resulting from tube inserts/roughened surfaces
• Forced convection over cylinders/tube banks and free convection/radiation from simple shapes
• Heat pipe design/performance prediction, appropriate temperature measuring devices, and refractory lining materials requirements
• Condensation
• Evaporation
• Heat exchanger selection/costing, performance and design
• Process integration, fouling and vibration in tube banks

Mechanisms

Methods and data for the design and analysis of cams, gears, linkages and Geneva mechanisms, including contact stress estimation:

• Selecting cam and follower type
• Selecting cam laws, both trigonometrical and polynomial
• Kinematic analysis
• Estimating basic dimensions and blending of cam profiles
• Cam methods: Selection of materials, manufacturing methods and lubricants
• Methods for designing parallel axis straight spur and helical gears
• Method for calculating contact and root bending stress limitations, compatible with BS 436: Part 3
• Kinematic design of epicyclic gear trains
• Linkage data and force analysis of linkages
• Balancing procedures for planar linkages
• Designing internal and external Geneva mechanisms
• Estimation methods for evaluating contact stress for a general contact with purely normal loading or with combined normal and tangential loading for gross sliding conditions

Aircraft Performance

Data and methods to estimate the performance of a proposed aircraft at every stage of its design, from project stage to operation, with data for three levels of estimation (first approximation, “project” method, and comprehensive calculation). Includes performance measurement information:

• Flight-test handling measurements
• Analysis using equations of motion
• Reduction to standard conditions by incremental adjustment
• Non-dimensional group presentations
• Correction of air-data measurements and methods of in-flight thrust measurement for turbo-jet and turbo-fan engines
• Related Tools
  • International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) app
  • Wing lift-curve slope app

Physical Data

The most reliable correlated data available (equations and in tabular form) for the physical properties of a wide range of pure compounds and some mixtures used in the chemical industry, including:

• Vapor pressure
• Liquid density
• Liquid heat capacity and enthalpy
• Liquid viscosity
• Liquid and gas thermal conductivity
• Fire hazard properties
• Properties of water substance
• Thermophysical properties of a number of industrially important compounds, including modern refrigerants

Stress and Strength of Components

Strength analysis of components used in general mechanical engineering for three principal types:

• Design of commonly used components: Struts, beams, shafts, plates, pressure vessels, pipes, fastenings, welds and springs, including data on stiffnesses, static stresses/deflections, buckling loads and fatigue strengths
• Data for certain stress intensity factors and contact stresses
• Data on the fatigue strength of materials, both as constant amplitude stress versus endurance (S-N) curves and in terms of linear elastic fracture mechanics
  • Low and high alloy and stainless steels made to US, UK and European specifications
  • Fracture mechanics data: Crack propagation rates, many down to threshold, and fracture toughness values
• Related Tools
  • Inelastic stress-strain curves from ESDU 89052

Aircraft Structures

Comprehensive and continually expanding, rigorously evaluated information for the strength analysis of lightweight structures such as those used in aerospace, including:

• Elastic or inelastic stresses, strains, displacements or buckling loads under static loading
• Metallic materials properties, principal stresses and strains, and failure criteria for specific components: Beams, struts, panels, stress raisers (stress concentrations) and joints

Transonic Aerodynamics

Information on the flow around aerofoils, wings, bodies and cowls at high subsonic, transonic and (in a few cases) low supersonic speeds, including:

• Methods in computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
• Methods of calculating the pressure distribution and loading on aerofoils and wings in high subsonic flow
• Methods of calculating the drag-rise Mach number and/or the wave drag of aerofoils, wings and bodies
• Exchange rates between pertinent aerofoil and wing design parameters at the drag-rise condition, including the prediction of shock-induced separation
• CFD-data for the wave drag coefficient for families of low fineness ratio forebodies and for an extensive family of axisymmetric forecowl
• Extensive treatment of the application of vortex generators to the control of shock-induced separation, particularly on wings
• Related Tools
  • International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) app
  • Wing lift-curve slope app

Tribology

Methods and data for the design, analysis and selection processes associated with lubricants, lubrication, friction, wear and bearings, including:

• Guidance on choosing the type of journal or thrust bearing to meet the requirements of load, speed and associated environmental/operational factors
• Step-by-step procedure for the design and material selection of dry rubbing bearings
• Selection procedures for the choice of rolling bearings
• Calculation methods for the design and analysis of:
  • Steadily loaded hydrodynamic journal bearings with axial grooves and circumferential groove including superlaminar operation and low viscosity process fluid lubrication
  • Hydrostatic bearing design with capillary restrictor control
  • Steadily loaded fixed-inclined-pad and off-set pivot, tilting pad, thrust bearings
• Contact phenomena
• Methods for the determination of minimum film thickness in elastohydrodynamic concentrated Hertzian contacts
• Design of tanks for forced-circulation oil-lubrication systems, grease life estimation in rolling bearings, selection of filter rating and the selection of synthetic oils
• Estimation of equilibrium temperatures in self-contained bearing assemblies
• Design of crossed-flexure pivots
• Selection procedures for the dynamic sealing of fluids dealing with both rotary and reciprocating seals
• Properties of common engineering materials
• Dynamics of a simple flexible rotor supported in axial groove hydrodynamic journal bearings
• Stress and lubrication characteristics of disc cams

Vibration and Acoustic Fatigue

Simple, efficient methods for estimating the response and fatigue life of structures typical of those used in the aerospace industry, including fiber-reinforced composites, when subjected to acoustic loading. Includes data on:

• Best relative performance of various designs for a noisy environment
• Noise from turbo-jet engines and propeller-driven aircraft
• Natural frequencies of plate, box and shell structures
• Methods for estimating damping, including radiation damping

Wind Engineering

Reliable methods and data for predicting the loads on, and the response of, buildings and structures to wind. Includes:

• Methods and a computer program for estimating design wind speeds and turbulence properties for all types of terrain including topographic effects on wind speed
• Comprehensive prediction procedures for estimating force and pressure coefficients for structures such as stacks, masts, towers (including those with polygonal sections), lattice structures, beams, plates, boundary walls, aerials and regular building shapes
• Methods and computer programs for predicting dynamic effects associated with the oscillation of a structure induced by wind effects (such as buffeting by turbulence, vortex shedding and galloping) close to one, or more, of the structure's natural vibration frequencies
• Guidance on the interaction effects of closely spaced circular cross-section structures
• Methods for obtaining the natural vibration characteristics of frame, shear and sway buildings, needed for the prediction of their response to wind or earthquake
• Method for estimating the damping of buildings

ESDU Packages

• Aerodynamics Design
  A collection of the Aerodynamics Series, USAF DATCOM plus related NACA and NASA documents

  ESDU Aerodynamics Collection brochure

• Aerospace
  A collection of methods and data for design use in a wide range of disciplines that comprise the ESDU Aerospace Package

  ESDU Aerospace Engineering brochure

• Aerostructures
  A collection of methods and data for design use in a wide range of disciplines that comprise the ESDU Aerostructures Package

  ESDU Aerostructures Engineering brochure

• Automotive
  A group of independently validated design methods, best practices, data and software tools for solving complex automotive engineering problems and enabling faster and more reliable decision making during vehicle product design

  ESDU Automotive Collection brochure

• Nuclear Engineering
  Validated data, procedures and software, endorsed by professional institutions, for use in the design of nuclear facilities and their maintenance, repair and operation (MRO)

  ESDU Nuclear Package
  Nuclear Design Methods whitepaper

• Process Engineering
  Methods and data to evaluate or predict the performance of process plant equipment and process systems

  ESDU Process Engineering Technology brochure

• Structures Design
  A set of design information consisting of validated ESDU methods, data and software, including:

  • The ESDU Structures Series
  • Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures by E.F. Bruhn
  • MMDH - Metallic Materials Data Handbook
  • MMPDS - Metallic Materials Properties Development and Standardization Handbook
  • NACA/NASA references from the ESDU Structures Series
  • NACA/NASA references from E.F. Bruhn's text

Aerospace Materials Data

• MMDH - Metallic Materials Data Handbook
  Data on aerospace structural metallic materials properties to assist engineers with meeting design requirements

  MMDH brochure

• MMPDS - Metallic Materials Properties
  Statistically based design values for commonly used metallic materials and joints and data on other mechanical and physical properties needed to design aerospace structures

Additional Engineering References

• Bruhn: Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structure
  One of the most useful aerospace industry and university text books ever written, with an emphasis on practical application including input from both material strength and hands-on experience. Originally published in 1965 and revised in 1973, this book was prepared as a source of data and procedure for use in the sizing and design of both airframe and space vehicle structures and is the only book that has been widely used by the aerospace industry to date.

• NACA Collection
  A collection of all NACA documents available from ESDU

• NASA Collection
  A collection of all NASA documents available from ESDU

• USAF DATCOM
  The USAF Stability and Control DATCOM (Data Compendium) was compiled between 1960 and 1978 by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation in conjunction with the engineers at the Flight Dynamics Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. DATCOM provides a systematic summary of methods for estimating basic stability and control derivatives. The book is intended to be used for preliminary design purposes before the acquisition of test data.