AIRUP · AIRBUS-UPM European Industrial Doctorate in mathematical methods applied to aircraft design

AIRBUS-UPM European Industrial Doctorate in mathematical methods applied to aircraft design

AIRUP is a Marie Curie funded project coordinated by an academic partner: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), and with the participation of a relevant industrial partner from the aeronautical sector: Airbus branches based in Germany and in Spain, ALTRAN and INTA. AIRUP consolidated a joint PhD training programme by fostering the research in the mainstream areas of contemporary fluid dynamics and numerical simulation and enhancing the preparation of highly trained and skilled young engineers in the aeronautical sector. The project was funded under the Marie Curie Initial Training Networks call as part of the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and run from the 1st of September 2013 to 31th of August 2017. The technical objectives were to improve scientific capabilities of aerodynamics simulation tools which allow for enhanced design processes by mitigating existing efficiency, reliability and accuracy problems. This was achieved by the development of five joint PhD research lines combining industrial and academic interest: 1. Dual Mesh construction from degenerate primary meshes A key problem in the generation of volume meshes using hyperbolic approaches is degeneracies caused by collision of mesh layers in convex regions or regions where opposite surfaces are in close proximity, for example, wing-fuselage intersections. The construction of dual meshes from degenerate primary meshes will relax constraints on primary mesh generation and provide better mesh quality in convex and proximate regions of geometry. 2. New approaches for shape optimization based on advanced surrogate models Aerodynamic shape optimization is crucial step in aircraft design. The major drawback of that process is that it usually requires large numbers of flow model evaluations to find a global optimum. These problems might be overcome by using more efficient way of evaluating the flow model in the optimization loop, as a surrogate model instead of direct high-fidelity computation. New approaches for optimization combines surrogate modeling, gradients from surrogates and adjoint information from numerical solvers throughout the complete design process chain to perform efficient and robust shape optimization for aerodynamic design. 3. Post-Processing Enhancement – Uncertainty evaluation of unsteady/steady flow Current methods of feature detection are based on the description of fluid variables, like vorticity or shear stress. These magnitudes can make visible with some success different flow features, likes vortex cores, boundary layers, detached lines, etc. However, other methods are coming up that can extract very valuable information of the flow. Post-processing enhancement aims the identification of the main flow features present in the flow according to different criteria (energy, unsteadiness, acoustic) and different algorithms. 4. Design and analysis of experiments via surrogate modelling High dimensional aerodynamic design problems require time consuming and computationally expensive simulations or physical (high-fidelity) experiments to evaluate the constrained or unconstrained complex objectives functions for analysis and optimization. To circumvent such burdens researchers introduced cheap to evaluate approximations (surrogates) based optimization (SBO) frameworks. This research aims to develop a set of robust, fast methodologies to help in the multi-objective design using data provided by several sources. 5. Stability analysis of complex aerodynamics flows Engineering designs often require a prediction for the occurrence of undesirable flow conditions. The onset of large-scale flow unsteadiness is characterized by fluctuating loads that can be detrimental in engineering applications. A physical understanding of the underlying mechanisms is required to alleviate or control the unsteadiness, by predicting the onset of flow unsteadiness based on steady solutions of the Reynolds Averages Navier-Stokes equations. At the end of the AIRUP project, the main achievements include: • Improved transfer of knowledge between industry and academia • Organisation of several workshop to enhance the knowledge in common research lines • Visibility of different Airbus-sites outside AIRUP • Enhanced collaboration between partners through visits of the fellows (secondments) • Dissemination of the scientific outcome by participation in numerous international conferences • Development of new numerical tools which have substantially contribute to improve the current status of simulation in the design process • Training of 5 ESR beyond the state of the art of “what can offer simulation and computing to industry”. AIRUP has produced new initiatives and synergies that will enhance high-profile research between European countries in different sectors. From the technical point of view, the main objectives include: • General advances in numerical methods and underlying physics aimed at obtaining a better understand of complex aerodynamics flows. • General advances in numerical methods to predict flow unsteadiness under external perturbation. • Investigation of the new algorithms for aerodynamic design optimization. • Implementation of the most advances algorithms and tools for mesh deformation in complex configurations. Additionally, • Specialist exchange between the networks team and contribution of expert from outside and inside the network. • Joint publications and dissemination of results. General progress of communication between industry and academia. Transfer of knowledge and tools from academia to industry and improved capability of the academia to a better perception of industrial problems. Industry, will acquire from this consortium awareness of new potential technologies, as well as new capabilities to be implemented within the design process. All ESRs have successfully achieved their training objectives and will defend their PhD thesis by the end of year 2017. The clear impact on their career is visible by the fact that all are currently working – 3 out of 5 ESRs are employed or collaborating with the Beneficiaries of the AIRUP project: Airbus Germany and UPM.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union