Eglin's SEEK EAGLE, AEDC debut new computer asset

  • Published
  • Arnold Engineering Development Center
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  After a rigorous multi-year effort, a ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the successful acquisition and official implementation of a new high-performance computer to be shared between the Air Force SEEK EAGLE Office at Eglin AFB, Fla., and the Arnold Engineering Development Center.

The new Silicon Graphics International HPC system, which resides at AEDC, signals a landmark step forward in the collaborative relationship between AFSEO and Arnold, said Lance Baxter, 649th Test System Squadron director. The HPC provides a powerful computational and modeling tool to help both organizations tackle the more challenging physics problems encountered in their respective weapons systems testing environments.

"This is a significant expansion of our computational ability," he said. The modeling and simulation efforts of AFSEO and AEDC support integrated testing and evaluation across the board. This particular machine supports AEDC modeling, simulation and wind tunnel testing, while AFSEO does flight testing and integrates the entire program together.

He said the new computer system helps both organizations tackle more technically demanding modeling and simulation issues, including the complicated geometries of internal weapons bays, weapon launches and inlet and engine combinations that can create irregular air flow as well as severe acoustic and complex aero-thermodynamic environments.

James Brock, AFSEO's technical director, said he has high expectations for the new HPC resource, but acknowledged challenges still lie ahead. 

"It's only the beginning of what we can do and where we need to go with test and evaluation in the future, he said. This resource will enable us to do things better, faster and cheaper while improving support to the warfighter and the acquisition communities.

Brock said this program is technically ahead of the software architectures, but he is optimistic about meeting that challenge as well.

The plan is to migrate computationally intensive modeling and simulation tools to this system, he said. And using the resource as much as possible. There's still work to be done with software development in order to take full advantage of this capability.

Brock acknowledged there is already a backlog of flight test and evaluation projects at AFSEO waiting to use the new HPC asset.

"We have a number of projects on our plate right now that are great candidates for this environment," he said. "[Many of these] will be supporting the F-35 [Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter]."

AEDC members are already discussing what lies ahead for the partnership between AFSEO and AEDC.

"We're looking at a different way of thinking, a new approach to this entire test and evaluation business," Brock explained. "A large part of the cost associated with wind tunnel testing is just getting to the tunnel. Once you get there, taking data points is relatively inexpensive, but we've got to break that status quo mentality and mindset. We've got to plan from the beginning of how to do an efficient wind tunnel test.  Compared to wind tunnel and other ground testing [support], flight testing is a big expense," he continued. "If we can reduce just one flight test from the test matrix, depending on the type of mission, we can save [approximately] $100,000 for a program."

Brock said much of the planning, research, coordination and effort to sell the idea in support of the new HPC asset took place behind-the-scenes and included many people from Eglin and AEDC.

"There are a number of people that had a huge part in putting this entire proposal together," he said.  "There were a lot of people behind the scenes who weren't here [at the ribbon-cutting ceremony] that deserve a lot of recognition and have been and will continue to be a big part of this effort."