Mechanics Simulator: An Advanced 3D FE Vibration Simulation Tool for Microwave Tubes

The structures of microwave tube are very fine and complex. Small mechanical perturbations of structures can possibly lead to electrical failure of the microwave tube and even cause the structures of the microwave tube destroyed. Designers need to study the reliability and stability of microwave tube and understand their instabilities in current designs and predict material failure for future designs under all operating environment conditions. In this paper, a three-dimensional mechanical vibration analysis numerical simulation software MCS, which consists of design environment, free vibration analysis simulator and random vibration analysis simulator, is developed based on finite element method and CAD/CAE integrated system. The developed software has been applied to traveling wave tubes design and been found to shorten the design cycle significantly compared with commercial software ANSYS.