PREDICTING PERFORMANCE OF OPTICAL-SYSTEMS UNDERGOING THERMAL-MECHANICAL LOADINGS USING INTEGRATED THERMAL-STRUCTURAL-OPTICAL NUMERICAL-METHODS

Predicting performance of electrooptical systems that operate while subjected to thermal/mechanical loadings has been accomplished by integrating computer-based numerical tools. Thermal, structural, and optical computer programs were interfaced into a Thermal/Structural/Optical (TSO) evaluation process which integrates the separate analyses by automatizing data transfers among the individual programs to permit rapid evaluation of optical systems undergoing thermal/mechanical loadings. The design/analysis process involves iterating the following: thermal/mechanical error budgets, TSO evaluations of electrooptical systems, and comparisons of TSO results with error budget line items. The thermal/mechanical loadings include cryogenic loads, steady state acceleration, random vibration, and decaying dynamic loads.