Airbus-led collaborative research programme

Airbus-led collaborative research programme

An Airbus-led collaborative research programme, jointly funded by the UK Government and industry partners, will develop sophisticated and advanced computer-based systems and processes to greatly enhance the future design of aircraft, ships, racing cars and many other applications. The simulation research programme, known as the CFMS Core Programme[1], will develop innovative computer-based simulation systems that will increase the power of fluid mechanics design processes by up to a million times by 2012, leading to significantly reduced product development lead times, as well as enhanced product optimisation.

For example, by 2012, elements of the commercial aircraft aerodynamic design process, such as defining data for use in the loads analysis process that currently takes up to 350 days could be reduced to just 36 days by replacing existing physical wind tunnel testing- based methods with high fidelity,computer-based simulation. In cases such as this, the time consuming process of model manufacture and testing will be replaced by enhanced, sophisticated numerical simulation methods that are able to generate and manipulate data significantly faster than any of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods available today.

The new more efficient and powerful design processes will also enable the development of further improvements in environmental impact as more effort can be focused on the development of environmentally friendly products. Achieving the required levels of aerodynamic performance needed to meet the ever more challenging environmental targets will require the adoption of novel technologies, and possibly new airframe configurations. In many cases,significantly enhanced simulation tools will be the only way to fully take advantage of these opportunities.

In addition, the new technologies will reduce energy consumption and waste in the design process. They will facilitate a “right first time”philosophy and provide the opportunity to look at several alternative design solutions within a “virtual environment”. These energy savings will come from a number of sources, such as the need for fewer physical models,lower-test facility costs, reduced flight test hours and less rework in the early stages of product manufacture.

The programme has recently started as a pilot in the UK and is due to run for three years. It is expected that the programme will be extended to complementary research programmes in other European countries in the future.

Note

1. The programme is formally referred to as the CFMS Core Programme. CFMS initially stood for “Centre for Fluid Mechanics Simulation” though the programme has been extended to cover a broad programme of research into a range of enabling technologies in the field of fluid mechanics simulation.