Collaborative understanding of disciplinary correlations using a low-fidelity physics-based aerospace toolkit

Abstract

When performing aircraft design, covering all relevant physical effects and mutual interactions at a sufficient level of fidelity necessitates simultaneous consideration of a large number of disciplines. This requires methods in which teams of engineers simultaneously apply both their analysis modules and knowledge to collaboratively approach design challenges.

In the current work, recent technical advancements of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in data and workflow management are utilised to establish a toolbox containing elementary disciplinary analysis modules. This toolbox is focused on providing fast overall aircraft design capabilities. The incorporated empirical and physics-based lowfidelity modules can be used for setting up modular design workflows, tailored for the considered design cases. This enables the involved engineers to identify design trends at low computational effort. Furthermore, areas of common physical affinity are identified among the engineers, serving as basis for communication. Clear visualisation methods aid in efficiently translating knowledge between the involved engineers within the identified areas of common affinity. In later phases of the design process, the gathered knowledge serves as basis for incorporating modules of higher fidelity.

Two application cases guide the present work. In the first application case, a system-of-systems approach is established by applying the elementary aircraft design toolbox to generate requirement sets for engine preliminary design. In this way, a clear synergy is established between the design of both the airframe and power plant. In the second application case, the applicability of a strut-braced wing as potential short-to-medium-range aircraft is investigated by a team of engineers. Within both application cases, methods are applied in which the involved engineers share their knowledge through a collaborative design approach.