Modelling and Simulation Tools for Systems Integration on Aircraft

The provision of integrated modeling, simulation and optimization tools to effectively support all stages of aircraft design remains a critical challenge in the aerospace industry. While several breakthroughs have been achieved in this area, costly iterations are still often necessary to successfully design, develop, integrate, validate and verify the components and subsystems of modern aircraft. The high level of system integration that is characteristic of new aircraft designs is dramatically increasing the complexity of both design and verification - in particular for fault condition analysis and the implementation of defect-free software (Figure 1).

Simultaneously, the multi-physics interactions between structural, electrical, thermal, and hydraulic components have become more significant as the systems become increasingly interconnected (e.g. the interaction among thermal load due to increased cabin electrical power usage, an electrically-powered environmental control system, and electrically powered flight control actuation).