Public Funding for International Technegroup Limited

The SIMLIGHT project is concerned with the computational electromagnetic (CEM) simulation of the effects of lightning strikes on the fully connected aircraft, and the impact on the design, performance, compatibility, compliance and certification of aircraft structures, integrated sensors and components. Modern aircraft contain an ever-increasing array of complex electronic systems. The ability to predict electromagnetic environments for new concepts and undertake qualification and clearance into service is critical. Products must be protected against electromagnetic interference, induced effects of lightning strikes, and high intensity radiated fields following rigorous testing and international standards. CEM simulation is essential for predicting electromagnetic performance, but significant challenges remain. Pre-processing tools must effectively handle complex multi-scale aircraft geometry, including cabling and electronic equipment. Computational requirements must support simulation across a broad frequency spectrum and long simulation time, combined with fine mesh and large computational domains. Simulation of cabling and electronic devices must address increased complexity of subsystems and their impact on electromagnetic interference/compatibility. New material models need to be developed and validated for composites and alloys. SIMLIGHT aims to make a step forward, introducing new tools and techniques to address these challenges and support the move towards Model Based Engineering and the generation of a CEM Digital Twin. New pre-processing capabilities will be developed including: a lightning attachment zone prediction tool; a robust automatic mid-surface generator to reduce thin-walled structures to shells for faster meshing and simulation; tools for the identification and treatment of critical EMC information in CAD; a new shrink-wrap-based auto simplification tool for complex geometries. The electromagnetic simulation tool will be based on the novel time-domain hybrid solver for integrated antennas and sensors developed in the EMSCAT project, with new development focusing on capabilities for EMC and lightning effects. New parameterised models for small geometrical features such as thin slots and apertures will be developed and linked with pre-processing capabilities. Cable bundle modelling will be addressed by direct inclusion in the time-domain solver as well as by coupling with a full transmission line solution accounting for individual cables. New models for dielectric and conductive sheets will consider field diffusion through composites. Improved parallelisation schemes, combined with high- to low-frequency extrapolation techniques, will mitigate the exceedingly long computations required for whole aircraft simulation at the necessary resolution. The tools and techniques developed will benefit from the expertise of the industrial aerospace partner, ensuring a focus on key requirements and validation within an industrial environment.

The DAWS project will explore and evaluate a range of innovative wing concepts (including the use of folding wing tips to allow for greater wing span), needed to significantly improve the performance of future generations of commercial aircraft. With ever increasing awareness of environmental concerns, reducing environmental impact in a commercially sustainable way is now the priority challenge facing the aviation sector. However, such aircraft can only be delivered if the design tools and processes used to develop them are similarly transformed. DAWS will deliver a selection of innovative design and validation processes needed to support the wing development activities.

Designing products collaboratively and exploiting new technologies in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) requires novel approaches to the ways engineering teams must work. In the COLIBRI project we will explore and develop new tools that exploit advances in AI/ML to improve and speed up the collaborative design environment for the UK's aerospace design community. This will include the use of advanced design process automation tools, voxel based geometry to augment the capabilities of conventional CAD tools and generative adversarial network and convolution neural methods to provide an AI/ML layer to these tools.

The project is concerned with the computational electromagnetic (CEM) analysis of the performance, compatibility, compliance and certification of integrated sensors and electronic components within the connected aircraft

Geometry is at the heart of all aerodynamic and mechanical design processes and tools. The creation, manipulation and discretisation of geometry has become the bottle neck in design-simulation iteration time and therefore is a limiting factor in our ability to reduce time to market. Increasing competitive, environmental and commercial pressures are demanding ever higher performing products which in turn need more design iterations and simulation which means that the importance of geometry and its integration with the design process and simulation is increasing. GEMinIDS will deliver geometry handling and meshing technology that builds upon the GHandI (Geometry Handling and Integration) project whilst also extending its scope to Integrated Design Systems. GEMinIDS brings together the technology and consortium established in GHandI, with leading SMEs and academics in the field, to produce a project with a scale, breadth and level of synergy that will enable a step change in UK competitiveness in this important enabling technology.

UK aerospace companies rely heavily on numerical simulation, both to test designs in contexts that would not be physically practical, and as the most efficient way of reducing risk and quantifying design performance. However, preparing a geometric model for simulation is still frequently a manual and labour-intensive activity. The R&D work carried out by the AuGMENT project will develop advanced tools for geometry and meshing to allow engineering simulation to participate fully and effectively in the earliest stages of industrial design. AuGMENT brings together two SMEs (Cambridge Flow Solutions and TranscenData Europe) with complementary products (BoXeR and CADfix) that use two distinct representations of geometry and distinct approaches to automated meshing. The project will demonstrate that these approaches can be successfully integrated into interoperable end-user products that combine their strengths, making it possible for users to access the benefits of both.

The Integrated Computational Electromangetics & Novel Integration Technologies (ICE NITE) programme intends to find improved means, from an electromagnetic resilience point of view, for integrating systems into aircraft or other platforms (such as cars or trains), over the currently used un-organised bundles of cables tied into looms. A structured cable alternative would offer many advantages, including much improved modellability using computational electromagnetic methods. At present it is not possible to know where particular cables are in a bundle, and indeed, their positions are not fixed along a cable loom length. Improved certainty about locations would enable better targeted shielding, and better predictability of EM coupling levels which in turn should lead to lower margins, lower equipment qualification levels with resultant lower cost. Furthermore, this will engender reductions in volume and mass, enabling fuel savings or increased endurance/payloads.

One of the most fundamental properties affecting the aerodynamic performance of a body is its shape. With progressively increasing demands for performance, the need to explore and optimise the performance of novel airframe shapes rapidly and with robust, efficient processes is becoming increasingly important. This poses significant challenges for the ways in which the associated geometry is generated and manipulated (in support of design) both on its wetted surfaces and in the adjacent air flow (i.e. the computational mesh). Greater attention is being focused on these challenges globally and it is vital that the UK keeps ahead of the competition. The proposed research programme will, for the first time, bring together key strands of the UK aerodynamics community who are currently active in this area, facilitate knowledge sharing and cross-fertilisation via complementary, research activities, and establish innovative capabilities and shared understanding.

Awaiting Public Summary

The CAST 2 project will research, develop and test new mesh generation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), computational aero-acoustics (CAA) and optimisation technology, in order to deliver a competitive advantage to the aerodynamic design and analysis capability of UK industry, and to maintain UK world class expertise in development and application of aerodynamics technology. This objective is achieved through close partnership between multiple partners in industry, research organisations and universities in the UK. CAST 2 builds on the successful partnership and collaboration created in CAST 1, taking the CFD/optimisation technology to a new level of capability and maturity, bringing in CAA development, facilitating greater technology transfer through inclusion of university partners and widening the industrial exploitation to six partners including two partners exploiting the technology in non-aerospace sectors. Exploitation of this technology significantly enhances; transport design for low environmental impact, financial exploitation to improve partner competitiveness, UK position in aerodynamic design capability.