Hero Award presented to ATA engineer

  • Published
  • By Deidre Ortiz
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN --  Dr. Robert Knapke, ATA engineer and scientist, was selected as recipient of the Hero Award for the Up and Coming in High Performance Computing Modernization Program.

Sandy Landsberg, associate director of Resource Management for the HPCMP, presented Knapke with the award during a presentation held Oct. 19. 

Bonnie Heikkinen, ATA project manager, said she nominated Knapke "for rapidly becoming proficient at executing and validating the CREATE™-AV Kestrel product in support of the Air Force F-22 Digital Thread effort, demonstrating the exact skills needed by program offices to accelerate vehicle design processes and minimize costly redesign - proving that significant ground test cost savings are possible."
Knapke was hired at AEDC in September 2014 and right away started working on the Air Force F-22 Digital Thread project, an effort that uses computational science and engineering tools such as the HPCMP CREATE™-AV Kestrel product for acquisition programs.

"These products are intended to provide flight vehicle performance insight early in the design process in order to accelerate the vehicle design process and minimize costly re-design. Validation of Kestrel product with AEDC wind tunnel test data provides confidence in the use of these tools," Heikkinen said. "Using the CREATE™-AV Kestrel tool, Knapke determined the 'best practices' for running numerous simulations to compare with wind tunnel tests."

Knapke stated he was "excited to hit the ground running" and to be part of the Digital Thread project.

"I have used the DOD High-Performance Computing resources to perform numerous CFD simulations of the wind tunnel scale F-22," he said. "The results of these simulations were used to validate the CFD software against wind tunnel data. Also, I was granted early access to Gordon, a new supercomputer at the Navy DOD Supercomputing Resource Center, as part of a HPCMP Capabilities Application Project. 

On Gordon, I had access to 50,000 CPUs (central processing units). Using those resources, I performed a scalability analysis of the CFD software and I completed simulations of the F-22 that were much larger than previously possible."
A three-time graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Knapke said he's always had an interest in physics and math, and when contemplating career paths, it was aerospace engineering that interested him most.

"After entering college, I found that I enjoyed programming and performing computer simulations. I was able to combine those interests with CFD," he said. "The focus of my master's degree was on the unsteady flow physics of a Counter-Rotating Aspirated Compressor.  My [doctorate] topic was on unsteady heat transfer using the Harmonic Balance and Conjugate Heat Transfer methods."

Knapke said he's glad to have the opportunity to put his background to use and thanks his project manager for acknowledging his recent efforts.

"I am grateful for the recognition of my hard work and for the support of my project manager, Bonnie Heikkinen, who nominated me for the award."

-AEDC-