Virtual testing for the prediction of damping in joints

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a virtual testing strategy in order to predict damping due to the joints which are present in the ARIANE 5 launcher Design/methodology/approach - Since engineering finite element codes do not give satisfactory results, either because they are too slow or because they cannot calculate dissipation accurately, a new computational tool is introduced based on the LArge Time INcrement (LATIN) method in its multiscale version. Findings - The capabilities of the new strategy are illustrated on one of the joints of ARIANE 5. The damping predicted virtually is compared to experimental results, and the approach appears promising. Originality/value - The tool which has been developed gives access to calculations which were previously unaffordable with standard computational codes, which may improve the design process of launchers. The code is transferred into ASTRIUM-ST, where it is being used to build a database of dissipations in the joints of the ARIANE 5 launcher.