Advanced Aircraft Understanding via the Virtual Aircraft Model

Kurzfassung

The need for more economical, environmentally friendly and safer air traffic in the future represents a major challenge for the aviation industry. The national aviation industry and the closely intertwined European aviation industry are in direct competition with North American manufacturers in this respect. In fact, there is also a strong increase in competition from the BRICC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Canada), with increased activity primarily in Canada and China. In order to maintain or even expand the position on the international market, better aircraft must be developed in shorter periods of time. This applies not only to new developments, but also to models derived from existing designs. The ability to describe an aircraft and its characteristics as accurately and comprehensively as possible in the computer with associated simulation models in the sense of a virtual product as a virtual aircraft model plays a key role here. If the interaction of all relevant disciplines is represented in the model with suitable accuracy at an early stage, this also allows "virtual flight tests" in the computer long before the first flight of an aircraft type. This has the potential to identify wrong decisions in the design of an aircraft at an early stage in the design process and thus prevent high costs. A virtual aircraft model becomes equally important for achieving shorter development times and thus reduced costs as well. The physical tests currently required, in the wind tunnel as well as later in flight tests, will be significantly reduced by providing qualified models. This will also have an impact on the certification process. The project idea is based on the vision that an initial virtual aircraft model will be available at an early stage in the development process of an aircraft and will be increasingly refined in the course of development. In the long term, the virtual aircraft model should be an essential basis for future product definition and development and thus contribute to an improved product description and a shortened development process. The idea of the virtual aircraft model will be implemented in the project and demonstrated on industrially relevant use cases. The numerical models and simulation tools, whose development is the common core of all subprojects and thus forms the connecting intersection in the joint project, will be used for this purpose. The following partners are involved in the joint project with their use cases or contributions to use cases: Airbus Operations: VitAir : Virtual Airbus Airbus Defence and Space: VitAMIn ABC : Virtual Aircraft Model for the Industrial Assessment of Blended Wing Body Controllability DLR: VitAM-Gust : Virtual Aircraft Model for Gust Load Alleviation System Development TU-Braunschweig ISM &WIRE: VitAM-Cal - Virtual Aircraft Model Calibration – contributes to all use cases TU-München LLB VitAM-Flex : Virtual Aircraft Model for Flexible Structures – contributes to VitAMIn ABC Uni-Stuttgart IAG VitAM–Turbulence : contributes to VitAM-Gust The reader will find separate chapters for each use case, for example “Use Case VitAM-Gust - Virtual Aircraft Model for Gust Load Alleviation System Development. All papers contributing to the use case are found in this chapter. The important results of this 4 years project initiative published in this book were also presented in the VitAM closing symposium which took place at the DLR Braunschweig, Germany, on 22nd of November, 2021. Mul