Post by jeff on Nov 14, 2017 8:45:12 GMT
Software helps keep Waterworld afloat
Sunnyvale, CA--A central element in the movie Waterworld is a full-scale floating city called the "atoll." Measuring one quarter mile in circumference, with a 365-foot diameter, the atoll posed numerous design challenges to the production company, King Kona Productions.
Just keeping something this massive afloat was one challenge. The atoll would reach 55 feet at its tallest point and was expected to weigh more than 1,000 tons. Another concern was how to move the atoll to various locations for filming.
Dennis Gassner, production designer for the Waterworld sets, approached the Marine Systems Group of Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space (Sunnyvale, CA) to design the foundation of the atoll. The company agreed to handle the design and engineering of the floating barges on which the atoll set would be built.
Production designers had decided that the atoll would consist of nine separate modules linked together. They gave Lockheed a description of the modules, the estimated weight of the set elements for each, and a 2-D AutoCAD drawing showing the top view of the entire atoll.
Lockheed started preliminary design, analysis, and detail design concurrently. The first step was converting the AutoCAD file to SDRC's (Milford, OH) I-DEAS Master Series, for preliminary design and structural analysis.
Using the I-DEAS drafting package, Bob Gardner, senior staff engineer at Lockheed, did an initial layout of the basic steel framework of the modules and the joints that connected them. He converted that plan view to CADAM format so the detail designers could position welded joints and gussets and determine I-beam cuts. Meanwhile Gardner performed structural analyses of the joints, individual modules, and moorings.
The joints connecting the modules were critical to link the sections securely, but also to allow some flexibility so that the atoll could move with wavelike motion. Another concern was the stresses on the joints when the atoll was towed out to sea.
Gardner made a 2-D finite-element model of the entire atoll. Since he was not sure what the complete atoll set would weigh, or what the drag would be, he took the maximum tow load of the tug and applied it to the I-DEAS finite-element model. Analysis results indicated the loads at each of the joints. Gardner used that information to revise his original design until the joints could withstand the load.
Individual modules were analyzed next. Gardner built 3-D finite-element models for each module and performed structural analyses of the steel framework to ensure it would support the weight of the set.
Gardner's next step was to determine mooring loads for the entire atoll. He used I-DEAS Finite Element Modeling to see what forces would be placed on the mooring lines to make sure they had sufficient anchoring. While Gardner was doing all this, others within Lockheed's Marine Systems Group were performing buoyancy and hydrodynamics analysis of the modules. In just under five months, design and engineering were finished and construction of the modules began.
www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/engineering-news/84604605734839/page/9/8
Sunnyvale, CA--A central element in the movie Waterworld is a full-scale floating city called the "atoll." Measuring one quarter mile in circumference, with a 365-foot diameter, the atoll posed numerous design challenges to the production company, King Kona Productions.
Just keeping something this massive afloat was one challenge. The atoll would reach 55 feet at its tallest point and was expected to weigh more than 1,000 tons. Another concern was how to move the atoll to various locations for filming.
Dennis Gassner, production designer for the Waterworld sets, approached the Marine Systems Group of Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space (Sunnyvale, CA) to design the foundation of the atoll. The company agreed to handle the design and engineering of the floating barges on which the atoll set would be built.
Production designers had decided that the atoll would consist of nine separate modules linked together. They gave Lockheed a description of the modules, the estimated weight of the set elements for each, and a 2-D AutoCAD drawing showing the top view of the entire atoll.
Lockheed started preliminary design, analysis, and detail design concurrently. The first step was converting the AutoCAD file to SDRC's (Milford, OH) I-DEAS Master Series, for preliminary design and structural analysis.
Using the I-DEAS drafting package, Bob Gardner, senior staff engineer at Lockheed, did an initial layout of the basic steel framework of the modules and the joints that connected them. He converted that plan view to CADAM format so the detail designers could position welded joints and gussets and determine I-beam cuts. Meanwhile Gardner performed structural analyses of the joints, individual modules, and moorings.
The joints connecting the modules were critical to link the sections securely, but also to allow some flexibility so that the atoll could move with wavelike motion. Another concern was the stresses on the joints when the atoll was towed out to sea.
Gardner made a 2-D finite-element model of the entire atoll. Since he was not sure what the complete atoll set would weigh, or what the drag would be, he took the maximum tow load of the tug and applied it to the I-DEAS finite-element model. Analysis results indicated the loads at each of the joints. Gardner used that information to revise his original design until the joints could withstand the load.
Individual modules were analyzed next. Gardner built 3-D finite-element models for each module and performed structural analyses of the steel framework to ensure it would support the weight of the set.
Gardner's next step was to determine mooring loads for the entire atoll. He used I-DEAS Finite Element Modeling to see what forces would be placed on the mooring lines to make sure they had sufficient anchoring. While Gardner was doing all this, others within Lockheed's Marine Systems Group were performing buoyancy and hydrodynamics analysis of the modules. In just under five months, design and engineering were finished and construction of the modules began.
www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/engineering-news/84604605734839/page/9/8