Three years ago, aerospace designers for Lockheed Martin discovered how simulation — using Chuck Yeager's Air Combat game and Microsoft's Flight Simulator — could help in aircraft design. "Sometimes you can know the equation, but not really know the physics," Paul Bevilaqua, chief engineer of advanced development projects at Lockheed Martin, told Design News. "That's what the games did for us: They taught us the real physics behind the equations."

Through simulation, the design engineers were able to replicate the performance of aircraft lift fans and try out their designs before building them. The ability to test drive a computerized model of an airplane while simultaneously tweaking its design, however, was five plus years away, Design News notes. But that hasn't stopped engineering teams from wanting simulation software and computer-aided design (CAD) software to meld together.

"For a long time, simulation and CAD have been separate and unequal disciplines," Todd Evans, a spokesman for design software maker MSC Software, said to Design News. "But over the last few years, that's been changing. Those disciplines have been moving towards each other."

In 2007, the British government and the aerospace industry agreed to a match-funding, three-year £17.4 million simulation technology program to speed up aircraft design, Vnunet.com reports. The goal of the program is to reduce development time and create a more eco-friendly process.

This aerospace consortium, led by Airbus, will develop simulation software. "By 2012 simulations will replace physical testing, cutting parts of the design process from 350 days to 36," claims the British Department of Trade and Industry. The department is putting up £8.7 million of the investment.

Modeling and simulation helps reduce the cost of prototyping and manufacturing by offering aerospace and defense researchers "the ability to test their innovations earlier in the process," say analysts at Frost & Sullivan (via IHS).

Due to that capability, modeling and simulation has become a sought-after technology in the aerospace industry. According to Frost & Sullivan (registration required), modeling and simulation are applicable from the initial design stage to the last phase of deployment in aerospace and defense projects.

But because modeling and simulation programs can be used for so many applications, there has been no standardization for this technology. With so many types available, not to mention the variety of CAD software they can be integrated to, companies wishing to employ simulation in their product design processes face several challenges, Collaborative Product Development Associates (CPDA), a technology research firm, says. Such complexities include the following:

• Multiple simulation models based on different data formats and requirements;
• The need to create complicated and repeatable work-flows; and
• The need to identify design alternatives and trade-offs.

Fortunately, several technologies have emerged to address these needs. CPDA conducted a study on one simulation software, the iSIGHT-FD by Engineous Software, which integrates CAD and CAE software, internally developed code and MS-Office. Along with integrating and automating the simulation process, it also finds the best alternative to the current mock-up and optimizes design, CPDA said.

Another similar technology, this time for 3-D modeling, is the digital shape sampling and processing (DSSP) technique. It improves the analysis of airline parts by capturing millions of points on the existing airplane part and creating a new digital model that is an average of all the samples, Aviation Maintenance reports. Unlike CAD, DSSP does not require an existing part to be created again from a blank screen. It also enables engineers to recreate parts for which no CAD data is available. DSSP captures existing physical conditions rather than creating new models.

By combining DSSP and CAD technologies, designers will be able to reconstruct parts that require repairs or redesigns in days rather than weeks, Aviation Maintenance says. DSSP creates the 3D model of a part that is then exported into CAD, where users can further manipulate the model. By collecting greater amounts of data, DSSP helps ensure higher-quality CAD models that are more consistent with the manufactured part.

So whether for initial designs or repairs and redesigns, simulation and modeling integrated with CAD is gaining more fans in the field of aviation. Does that imply that the ability to tweak the design while test-driving the simulated model be a reality in two years? Will integrated simulation and design software continue to fly?

What's your take on these technologies? Share your experiences or thoughts on the matter in the comments section.

Resources

Modeling and Simulation for Aerospace and Defense Applications
Frost & Sullivan, Dec. 31, 2007

Frost: Sophisticated Modeling, Simulation Promotes Uptake across A&D Industry
IHS, March 26, 2008

Simulation to Speed Aircraft Design
by British Parliamentary correspondent
Vnunet.com, Feb. 13, 2007

The Payoff of Early Optimization and Design Exploration
Collaborative Product Development Associates, March 2008

Technology Focus: DSSP Parts Analysis in 3D
by Alberto Grippa
Aviation Maintenance, June 1, 2008

Aerospace Engineers Play Computer Games and Improve Design Skills
by Charles J. Murray
Design News, June 14, 2005