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Use Cases

DEFAINE is a project where methods and tools are being developed. The following use cases are created by industrial partners . By providing a common problem to solve, software providers and Universities collaborate and develop in a realistic environment where product design data can flow between partners.

On-board systems architecture design

SAAB and Linköping University

During aircraft conceptual design all details of the aircraft and its systems are not yet available, thus requiring introducing simplifications, abstractions and assumptions to ensure that all relevant engineering domains are taken into consideration.

As of today, early conceptual design at Saab is primarily addressed with semi-empirical data, technical data sheets of available components. To improve confidence in early design, to reduce risk and provide lesser uncertainties on expected performance metrics, it is desirable to simplify the use and connection to transient simulations to explore time-dependent phenomena while still guaranteeing fast exploration of different architectures.

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DEFAINE will address two main needs regarding on-board systems modeling and assessment within aircraft conceptual design:

  • Exploration of different architecture alternatives for on-board systems

  • Automation of time-domain modeling of on-board systems.

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GKN Aerospace Use Cases

GKN Aerospace needs to have the ability to rapidly respond to new market opportunities and exploit product optimization opportunities. Smart manufacturing can lead to a step change in competiveness as well as having significant benefits in reducing the environmental footprint.  To support this, the DEFAINE project aims at:

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  • Increasing the level of design and analysis automation to reduce lead time and increase consistency

  • Applying Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) and Design Space Exploration techniques to explore the wider product design space and increase solution robustness

  • Storing the data of MDO studies for reuse and exploit this data in order to obtain feasible solutions more rapidly

 

As a multi-technology Tier-1 supplier, GKN Aerospace designs and manufactures multiple aircraft subsystems. In DEFAINE, three type of products are included in the use cases:

Engine Component

GKN AeroEngine Systems

The use case will serve to develop a fan frame structure and a simplified whole engine model. The DEFAINE approach will enable a set based approach for design optimization, increasing functionality and reduce cost

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​Electrical Wiring Interconnection System

GKN Fokker Elmo

The use case focuses on the automatic generation of EWIS architecture concepts. By automating these processes and using the envisioned DEFAINE framework and its DSE, optimization and data analysis techniques the aim is to be able to quickly generate different EWIS architecture concepts which can be used to feed more detailed analyses and substantiate both aircraft design and EWIS design trade-offs.

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Wing Box Structures

GKN Fokker Aerostructures

The use case concerns the trade-off of solutions for a wing aileron. Using a fully automated design and analysis workflow, multiple aileron topologies, material selection are to be optimized and traded.

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Integrated Use Case

In this use case an Airborne Early Warning (AEW) / Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance (ISR) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is used to exemplify the envisioned way of working developed within DEFAINE. The main focus of the use case scenario is on improving the aircraft concept development process by means of:​

  • Increasing knowledge and making higher fidelity models available as early as possible thanks to a novel design exploration framework based on the reuse of data and creation of meta-models from the individual use cases

  • Execution of the integrated use case based on meta-models and coupling to requirements.

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