comfortably? Are you sitting
Gemma Church looks at the ways simulation
software can optimise the passenger experience in the aircraft cabin
experience. From the air temperature, to the seats, to the
W
engine noise, simulation soſtware is improving the cabin environment while balancing stringent safety, cost, and environmental considerations. Such design decisions are based on trade-offs,
as Robert Yancey, vice president of aerospace and composites at Altair, explains: ‘For the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), the trade-off is optimising design versus the cost of production. For the airline, the trade-off is customer comfort versus revenue, maintenance and operating costs. Comfort also has to balance with ticket cost, which is dependent on the market being served.’ Tere are also trade-offs for the simulations
30 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
hen you step onto an aircraſt, you may not be aware of the diverse range of factors playing a part in producing a comfortable flying
caused by the dependent nature of the cabin’s environmental components, as Yancey continued: ‘Te biggest challenge is the multidisciplinary aspect of design. Te aerodynamics has an effect on the vibration and weight, the structure has an effect on the electromagnetic signals, the engine has an effect on the noise in the cabin, and so on. Tools like Altair HyperWorks enable companies to run multidisciplinary simulations, helping to define these interactions better and then optimise them.’ Te use of simulation, either through large-
scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) or system-level 1D simulation, in all lifecycle phases of the design process, implies several advantages when working through such trade-offs. Antonio Romano, head of environmental control system (ECS) and ice protection systems at aircraſt manufacturer Finmeccanica Aircraſt Division, said: ‘On one hand, the use of simulation and multidisciplinary optimisation in early design phases allows us to evaluate our design performances and margins more precisely, increases the robustness of the systems taking into account the design space constraints [and] more rapidly converge on the final design with confidence that the design won’t have to be changed in later phases.’ Romano added: ‘On the other hand, the
use of simulation in later stages of the design, including certification, allow us to reduce the development time and cost dramatically, for example by complementing the testing phases with simulations.’ Tese time savings are especially important
when simulating the interior aircraſt environment, as Durrell Rittenberg, director of Aerospace and Defense at CD-Adapco, said: ‘Te main difference between the heavy CFD analysis of aerodynamic performance and applications of CFD to [interior] applications are oſten related to wall clock time. Analysts and design engineers are under extraordinary time pressures to solve complex engineering problems. Tey need tools that can help them answer engineering questions fast enough to impact design decisions.’ Rittenberg added: ‘To achieve this, engineers
are moving towards tools that can help them pipeline their workflow – tools that can be automated and that include robust meshing capabilities to handle complex geometries oſten encountered with aircraſt designs.’
Cabin environment Air temperature, humidity and pressure are three major components that must be carefully balanced to optimise and stabilise the cabin environment.
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