Will the metaverse transcend the status quo?: Challenges to overcome for relying on multiphysics smarter testing and simulation in aerospace

icaf2023 Tracking Number 141

Smarter testing and simulation of aerospace structures can allow development lead-time and costs to be decreased when compared to the current methods, which rely almost solely on physical testing. By combining outputs from computer simulations with physical approaches, an optimised process of hybrid testing, based on the concept of a digital twin, can be applied throughout the lifecycle of a product from development to certification. But now our challenge is to integrate cryogenic LH2 fuel storage and distribution systems into our airframes which will require our thinking to transcend into a multiphysics world, with a high level of credibility. Introduction: The development and certification of aerospace structures requires significant investment from industry in time, labour, and money and can have a major impact on competitiveness. Physical testing of aerospace materials from coupons to components through to full-scale aircraft allows the behaviour under flight conditions to be observed and quantified, permitting the development of new components and aircraft (i.e., the status quo). The use of simulation and augmented reality (metaverse) technologies, combined with this physical testing, allows a “digital thread” to combine information from the full product lifecycle. These changes have the potential to decrease development lead-time and costs, and therefore make the design and certification process more efficient and competitive. The reliance on a digital thread and associated simulation tools is increasing almost exponentially in industry, mainly in order to decrease the development lead time but also to improve product robustness or maturity. For the aerospace industry the need to maintain product safety is paramount and the certification process is mandatory to ensure this is achieved. But there is also a business and market need to develop and manufacture aircraft faster so we can replace the aged inefficient fleet powered by fossil fuels with more modern clean and environmentally efficient airliners [1]. The challenges of integrating a LH2 fuel storage and distribution system into our airframes will cause us to examine how our different physics interact, how they are linked together, and more importantly how the uncertainties propagate between them and are validated. It is likely to challenge the “ATA” based certification meaning in place today in particular how traditional systems certification can be thought of as safe life. Model validation: In order to use simulation in the place of, or in combination with, physical testing, confidence in the computer simulations must be assured. This assurance can be provided using quantitative validation, where the prediction outputs of models are compared to “real-world” measurement data and an assessment can be made of how well the predictions represent the measurements [2,3]. However as most of this validation relies on traditional measurement techniques, these will need to be repurposed for multiphysics validation in order to be able to measure the individual parameters identified by the multiphysic simulation. Our challenge is to be able to derive a credible validation which fully describes the new environment of our Airframe. References [1] L. Harris The challenges in airbus to replace Full Scale Aircraft Fatigue Testing by Predictive Virtual Testing 35th ICAF Conference (2017) p. 1226-1231. [2] Standard for verification and validation in computational solid mechanics, ASME V&V 10-2019. New York, NY: American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2020. [3] Validation of computational solid mechanics models, CWA 16799:2014. Brussels: Comité Européen de Normalisation, 2014