The objective of the VISPERS program is development of a software package that combines theoretical and empirical methods to provide rapid accurate predictions of vibroacoustic and shock environments. Prediction of vibroacoustic and shock environments for aerospace launch vehicles and spacecraft is essential to insure reliability. Such analysis is currently a costly and labor intensive process. VISPERS will improve reliability and reduce costs.

Why is VISPERS Needed?

Prediction of vibroacoustic and shock environments for Department of Defense and commercial launch vehicles, as well as for spacecraft and satellites, is currently a costly and labor-intensive process. It is an inexact science. However, accurate environmental predictions are essential to ensure the reliability of vehicle structures and airborne equipment.

Analytical prediction procedures exist, but are often unreliable due to uncertainties in setting parameters such as damping, sound absorption, and excitation levels. Empirical prediction procedures also exist, but are limited by the extent and quality of existing data. The standard practice in the aerospace industry is to establish predictions based in part on empirical data scaling, in part on analysis, and in part on the "good" judgment of the engineer doing the prediction. The prediction process is costly and labor-intensive. Furthermore, a lack of confidence in the prediction results can lead to overly conservative specification levels that result in unnecessary weight penalties; or it can under predict and result in costly re-qualification of hardware, or worse, an operational failure.

How will VISPERS improve predictions?

The goal of the VISPERS project is to develop a software package that will alleviate these problems. Although the software cannot simplify the technology needed to make vibroacoustic predictions, it can provide intelligent guidance to the engineer and help to select the appropriate analytical tools, commercial software, and measured data needed for the process. By providing easy access to prediction software and vibroacoustic data, even experts will perform better using VISPERS.

What is VISPERS?

Technology Integrator VISPERS will be a technology integrator consisting of multiple modular tools for: source and response predictions, importation and scaling of data, and importation and further processing of results from other programs. Users will have the option of generating test specifications based on predicted environments. The modular design of VISPERS allows prediction models, scaling models, and other program capabilities to be developed independently and then integrated into the main program. Prototype software has been developed that includes one each of several types of modular capabilities and illustrates the flexibility of the modular design.

Expert System

VISPERS will include an expert system that will allow users to increase vibroacoustic prediction accuracy, reduce prediction costs, and improve productivity. Analysis tools and software will be integrated into an efficient, easy-to-use interface; new database technologies will be developed to allow rapid exchange of vibroacoustic data between distributed database servers; and the expertise that has been developed over the years will be quantified and packaged within an expert system framework

Visit www.vispers.com for more information.