Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a system to collect product information from manufacturers and make it available in tools that are used for concurrent design of spacecraft. The planning of a spacecraft needs experts from different disciplines, like propulsion, power, and thermal. Since these different disciplines rely on each other there is a high need for communication between them, which is often realized by a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) process and corresponding tools. We show by comparison that the product information provided by manufacturers often does not match the information needed by MBSE tools on a syntactic or semantic level. The information from manufacturers is also currently not available in machine-readable formats. Afterwards, we present a prototype of a system that makes product information from manufacturers directly available in MBSE tools, in a machine-readable way. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Against the background of the big environmental and societal challenges as formulated for example in Flightpath 2050, current developments in aircraft design are aiming at further emission reduction through integrated, unconventional propulsion, systems and airframe innovations. This requires the further integration of methods for multidisciplinary modelling, analysis and optimization for aircraft design, but also for propulsion and system level designs. Moreover, experimental validation of the methods and physical testing of critical unconventional propulsion and system designs are prerequisites for industrially relevant development processes. This paper presents some key technologies for computationally efficient collaborative MDO (multidisciplinary design and optimization) frameworks for multidisciplinary design and validation of advanced aeronautic products like aircraft and propulsion systems.

Abstract

In the face of growing public awareness of environmental issues such as climate change, the pressure to provide efficient and ecological new air transport solutions is higher than ever on the aviation community. To this aim, unconventional aircraft configurations, which are radically different from the established tube-and-wing architecture, may hold a lot of potential [1]. However, OEMs today usually shy away from such configurations due to the significantly increased uncertainty and entrepreneurial risk connected to such drastic design changes. In order to reduce the risk and increase knowledge about a new configuration, the application of physics-based analyses on a virtual aircraft can add significant value, when applied in the early stages of the design process by bringing new technologies to higher TRLs quickly. Due to the highly multidisciplinary nature of the aircraft design task, the success of this approach largely depends not only on the well-organized handling of the available product data at any point in the design process but also the smart sequencing of the disciplinary contributions based on their mutual dependencies. In this paper, a methodology for an integrated and collaborative approach to preliminary aircraft design is presented. It applies several well established components, such as CPACS (Common Parametric Aircraft Configuration Schema) [2] as a central product data schema and RCE (Remote Component Environment) [3] which enables an automated collaborative approach to aircraft design and combines them with methods from system architecting and model-based engineering [4]. Furthermore, the requirements for a disciplinary analysis and design tool to contribute to an integrated multidisciplinary design process are highlighted. Three examples are given, assuming the perspective of a structural designer: · An unmanned aerial vehicle from the AGILE project [4], where a cross-organizational workflow has been set up in order to perform aero-structural MDO on the wing planform [5]. · A Prandtl-plane configuration from the Parsifal project [6]. Here, a tail plane design and sizing is performed using data collected from a variety of partners. · A conventional configuration from the InDiCaD project, where the structural layout is designed in tandem with the cabin [7, 8]. The example cases demonstrate the initial investment necessary in order to integrate a disciplinary tool into a multidisciplinary environment as well as the potential benefits of being able to perform the analysis within a larger context.