Towards a Unified Framework using CPACS for Geometry Management in Aircraft Design

Abstract

The performance requirements for the next generations of airliners are stringent and require invention and design of unconventional configurations departing from the classical Cayley functional decomposition. The break with tradition calls for higher fidelity physics- based predictions of performance early on in the project. The paper makes the case for a unified, open, data-centric software environment for aircraft design and describes the merge of the CEASIOM conceptual design software package, developed by a number of partners including KTH, with the CPACS formalized data management system developed at DLR. The system provides multi-fidelity and multi-disciplinary analysis capabilities for concur- rent design by geographically distributed expert teams. The data-centric architecture uses the CPACS schema and access mechanisms for management of design data across all dis- ciplines and fidelity levels. This makes the system extensible and mitigates the problems encountered in handing over the model to later design phases. The concepts have been tested by interfacing external modules to CEASIOM/CPACS through a graphical CPACS XML editor, the ACbuilder gateway. Results of comparative analyses on models imported in this way from the RDS and VAMPzero conceptual design packages are reported here. CPACS will be released to the general public in spring ’12. The CEASIOM team expe- rience of joining forces via CPACS with DLR is altogether positive and further in-house development of software for aircraft performance prediction and design by the CEASIOM team will use the CPACS system.