DLR launches test centre for virtual aircraft
With the VPH, the DLR plans to establish an integration and test centre for the virtual simulation and certification of components and technologies as well as their integration into the overall aircraft in close cooperation with industrial partners such as Airbus and IABG as well as the scientific community.
“The opportunities offered by the digitization of aviation pose enormous challenges for research, on which DLR will be working together with partners in the Virtual Product House,” says DLR Executive Board member Rolf Henke. DLR will assume the role of integrator in order to work together with t on the realisation of the ambitious goal of virtual certification in Bremen.
The development, testing and production of new aircraft are associated with high time, technological and financial risks, especially when using new technologies and unconventional aircraft concepts. Performance deficits that only become apparent during test flights, delays in certification and time-consuming production processes can lead to considerable additional costs.
Lower physical and financial risks for aviation
These risks and the long lifecycles and production cycles of aircraft conflict with the continuous need for product improvements and thus with the innovative capability of aviation. In order to identify new technologies for safer, more environmentally friendly and more economical air traffic, to accelerate their introduction and to reduce technological risks, the design, development, testing, manufacturing and production processes are to be simulated on the computer in the future. To this end, the DLR scientists, together with their partners, want to map all the aircraft’s characteristics in simulation software, including step-by-step virtual partial certification.
The presentation of the Virtual Product House took place at the Bremen research and development centre ECOMAT (Center for Eco-efficient Materials & Technologies), which started its activities at the end of April. 500 experts from industry and science will work together on projects in the new building.
Launch project: control surface of an aircraft wing
The launch project in the VPH concentrates on a multifunctional control surface of an aircraft wing. For this specific component, the topics of virtual design, virtual manufacturing and virtual test procedures up to certification will be worked on and linked with the participating DLR institutes and project partners. Through the virtual integration of the disciplines, changes in the digital design and their effects on production and test procedures can be analyzed and optimized much faster.
In the long term, the VPH wants to create a common source software architecture as a protected simulation environment that will make it possible to shift the certification of aircraft components to the virtual level.
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