Recently, SIMULIA introduced the 2020 SIMULIA Champions, the inaugural team of brand ambassadors whose expertise and passion position them to advance the future of simulation technology. In this series of blogs, we will be introducing some of our individual SIMULIA Champions, finding out more about their history – and future – with the technology.
Ismael Rivero is a Structural Engineer at Airbus, a company known for its commercial airliners such as the A380, the largest passenger airliner in the world. Rivero, whose job includes performing analysis on simulations to assess the structural integrity of aircraft, has worked on the A380, but he mainly works in Airbus’ Defense and Space division, a lesser-known unit of the company that manufactures military aircraft as well as space systems like satellites. He is most proud of his work on the A380 as well as the A400M, a military transport aircraft that plays an important role in tactical, strategic and humanitarian missions.
While attending the Polytechnic University of Madrid to complete his aeronautical engineering degree, Rivero began an internship with Airbus. When he graduated, he went on to become a full-time employee and has been with the company for nine years. When he started university, he did not know that structural engineering existed and focused on aerodynamics. However, once he learned about a field that could predict the behavior and failure of materials, he found it fascinating and ended up doing his thesis on the topic.
“Since I was a kid, I’ve always liked airplanes, technology, these kinds of things,” Rivero says. “I have always wanted to know how machines worked and these kinds of topics, so when I continued with my studies, I decided I wanted to know more about these topics…the willingness to know more about how things work, how an airplane can fly, led me to study more about engineering.”
The aerospace field is full of challenges, particularly in designing aircraft that are as low weight as possible. With challenges come rewards, however, and Rivero finds his job especially rewarding.
“For all engineers working in structural analysis, one of the moments you are most proud of is when you have designed, calculated and simulated the structure of your aircraft,” he says. “Then you go to the final test, a physical test of the aircraft, and the behavior of the physical structure is the same as that you have simulated.”
There are significant differences in working on commercial and military aircraft, according to Rivero. Commercial aircraft are designed for one mission, which is to transport passengers from airport to airport, so they are optimized to fly at a certain speed and to use a minimal amount of fuel. Military aircraft, on the other hand, are designed for several different kinds of missions, so no single aspect can be optimized, making their design more complex.
Simulation software goes a long way toward meeting those challenges, and Rivero is a particular fan of Abaqus for its range of solutions and ability to allow the user to interact with simulations.
“You can customize the Abaqus capabilities to your specific needs,” he says. “It’s very personal and very powerful.”
Outside of work, Rivero enjoys traveling and learning about new cultures. He also likes biking and reading, particularly history. If not in his current field of work, he says he would like to study history on a professional level.
SIMULIA is pleased to welcome Ismael Rivero into the 2020 SIMULIA Champions program and excited to continue working with him in the future. Stay tuned to the blog to learn more about our other 2020 SIMULIA Champions.
Connect with Ismael on the SIMULIA Learning Community by visiting his profile here.
SIMULIA offers an advanced simulation product portfolio, including Abaqus, Isight, fe-safe, Tosca, Simpoe-Mold, SIMPACK, CST Studio Suite, XFlow, PowerFLOW and more. The SIMULIA Learning Community is the place to find the latest resources for SIMULIA software and to collaborate with other users. The key that unlocks the door of innovative thinking and knowledge building, the SIMULIA Learning Community provides you with the tools you need to expand your knowledge, whenever and wherever.
