H2020 SSeMID: Stability and Sensitivity Methods for Industrial Design

SSeMID:Stability and Sensitivity Methods for Industrial Design

The project SSeMID: Stability and Sensitivity Methods for Industrial Design, which finished in December 2019, received almost 4 million euros from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. This European Training Network embedded within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions aimed at improving the current aerodynamic performances of existing aircrafts, by developing new innovative methods and tools for modern airplane’s design at the same providing doctoral training to 16 international young researchers.

SSEMID counted with participation of international consortium with participation of 5 Universities: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), Imperial College London (UK), University of Cambridge (UK), KTH (Sweden), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), three National Research agencies dedicated to aeronautic research: Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales (France), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft – und Raumfahrt e.V. (Germany) and the von Karman Institute (Belgium) and two industries in aeronautic sector: Airbus (UK) and NUMECA (Belgium), with the additional participation of two American Universities: Purdue and San Diego University.

During the 4 years of its duration, the project generated results which contributed to significantly advance the development of numerical tools, the formulation of direct and adjoint methods for flow stability and the analysis of flow sensitivity under external perturbation, and in the application of these methods to the development of new industrial and more efficient aeronautical designs.

Areas of application of stability analysis and flow control

SSEMID´s research was focused on stability analysis as a key element in understanding the current limitations of aircraft designs, and on new numerical methodologies and models applied to obtain innovative solutions by the aircraft manufacturing industry. SSeMID has matured and industrialized new methods by obtaining the sensitivity maps of critical aerodynamic features that strongly affect the design variables, and its impact on aircraft performance, such as noise or fuel consumption. The direct application of this methodology will be to flow control and advance optimization. Flow control is an emerging technology that describes a variety of techniques by which aerodynamic performance can be enhanced to levels beyond those achieved by changes to external shape alone. The application of stability and sensitivity analysis provides the aircraft engineers with very valuable information to achieve an optimal aircraft design. SSEMID´s results combined model developments, experimental validation and application of new methodologies to industrial practice.

Instabilities promoted by roughness elements on the surface of space vehicles

Instabilities promoted by roughness elements on the surface of space vehicles.

Finalization of the project’s tasks contributed to the establishment of new numerical methods for advanced transition prediction in engineering applications. The work shed light on the complicated problems imposed by roughness induced transition during an atmospheric re-entry from a space mission. Aerospace industry needs such an understanding to improve the current capabilities and better manage the overly conservative safety margins. The research results are expected to have an impact on the management of isolated roughness in future aero-assisted space vehicles. Future use of such accurate analysis tools will allow to better estimate the effect of undesired roughness, thus leading to better performance and lower operational cost. As a result, a space vehicle will achieve higher payload with a considerable increase in safety. The analyses performed during SSEMID may help as well in the future design of aircraft and turbomachinery, thus contributing to a reduction of CO2 and NOx emissions to the atmosphere since these emissions are directly related to their efficiency in fuel burn. In general, accurate predictions for the aircraft configurations, as those obtained in SSEMID, will allow optimization of the aeronautical technology, with cheaper and safer aircrafts and with less negative environmental impact, ultimately benefiting the European society.

The young researchers employed by the project will obtain their doctoral degrees within international and intersectoral environment. They took active part in the innovation process by developing new methodologies and incorporating immature technologies into the industrial design processes. Students were introduced to a global view of the aircraft design process: from understanding the mathematical basis of numerical methods for simulation in engineering to their industrial application. Participation in SSEMID allowed them to gain in depth understanding of problems associated with tunnel testing and industrial design and experience how the results of their research are directly influencing advances in the aeronautical industry.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 675008.