Navy assists Purdue with grant to improve service life of helicopters

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) – AnalySwift LLC, a Purdue University-affiliated commercial software provider, has been awarded a $240,000 Small Business Innovation Research program grant from the U.S. Navy. According to a release, Purdue says the award will help the company further develop its SwiftComp software which will help the Navy save millions while extending the service life of helicopters.

Allan Wood, president and chief executive officer of AnalySwift, says the Navy will be able to use the software to properly align a helicopter’s predicted life to actual service life, reduce downtime in redesigns and will ultimately save money.

Developed by Wenbin Yu, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics in Purdue’s College of Engineering, the software technology has also been licensed to companies and universities worldwide, including for work on satellites and mobile phone components.

“SwiftComp takes details of the fundamental building block of materials and structures as input, then outputs the structural properties needed for macroscopic analysis. It can be used for composite beams, plates and shells, and 3D structures, for both micromechanical and structural modeling. This project will help expand the application of SwiftComp even further for composites used in rotorcraft and other applications with curved or tapering structures, as well as applications where a clear understanding of durability is critical,” said Yu.

You can learn more about how the technology works by clicking here.