Development, Design and Application of an Ontology in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics of Compressors

Abstract

At the Institute for Test and Simulation for Gas Turbines at the German Aerospace Center (DLR e.V.), a strong focus is on research into the digitization of aircraft engines and their simulation on a multiscale level. The goal of the present thesis is to contribute to the virtualization of aero-engines. To achieve this goal, an ontology in the field of CFD simulation of compressors is created and applied. In order to verify the application, the processes for simulating a compressor stage were analyzed and strategies for applying the ontology were developed. After developing the strategies, an ontology optimized for the use case was created and applied to the simulation process using an additional interface tool. As a result, the graph database model for the simulation metadata was created. With the help of the ontology, the simulation process of a compressor stage can be partially automated. Finally, an evaluation of the simulation results of the process, automated by the use of the ontology was performed. Further research in the area could address the coupling of the graph model with the raw simulation data.