ODS on the Queen Elizabeth Aircraft Carrier

Critical equipment onboard the UK’s newest aircraft carrier, the Queen Elizabeth, was found to have a severe vibration issue. Excessive motion could easily be observed on the machine’s control panel, putting at risk electronic components within. A small component, but vital in the operation of the vessel, the risk of failure whilst at sea was unacceptable. Isolation had been specified but not yet installed with its suitability still to be validated

Deploying a series of accelerometers across the machine and control panel Xi undertook a series of measurements during various states of operation. This data was then fed into an Operational Deflection Shape (ODS) model of the machine. The ODS model was then used to visualise the behaviour of the machine at given states and frequencies, providing greater clarity of the systems dynamic behaviour. This allowed Xi to verify the effectiveness of the isolation.