Towards the validation of manufacturing simulations by means of digital twins: conception, implementation and data acquisition for a composite aircraft moveable manufacturing process

Abstract

A simulation-based end-to-end process for the virtual product development is developped at the DLR Virtual Product House (VPH). It considers design, manufacturing and testing of structural components and systems and is currently demonstrated for a multifunctional moveable of a research aircraft configuration. In the future, processes like these shall be used for a more simulation-based certification of aerospace components. The absolute basis for being considered as a part of an acceptable means of compliance with regard to a certification paragraph is the validation of simulation methods and their results against physical tests. This applies both to structural and system tests as well as the prediction of manufacturing results using simulation methods. This contribution describes the approach of generating this validation data and its provision by means of a digital twin. The work is performed for the virtual production of the initial VPH use case, a composite multispar moveable of a long-range reference aircraft configuration. It includes the definition of the desired validation data, modeling of the manufacturing process by means of an extended formalised process description based on VDI 3682, the choice of required sensors as well as their integration into a tooling as well as the structure itself, the realization and data acquisition during the manufacturing process as well as the creation of a digital twin using a data model based on the formalised process description.