In the past several years simulation technology has gained enormous importance in engineering design and made giant leaps with respect to robustness and predictiveness in various disciplines. Impact load cases are not different here: With the right modelling techniques, sound verification and validation approaches and powerful solvers many design problems, that required excessive testing campaigns in the past, can be tackled virtually. This will shorten product development time and certainly make products safer, more robust, possibly lighter, and lead to more intelligent usage of materials and resources. Eventually, this should lead to an advanced approach in certification or homologation of products through the use of state-of-the-art numerical methods and respective simulation results. While this trend is seen in many industries, it can be stated that the steps taken are cautious and small. But what is even more noteworthy: Individual industries are tackling this challenge in many different ways and the level of acceptance for digital certification varies dramatically between applications
With the drive towards digital certification of innovative high-performance composite structures it is crucial to systematically manage and digitalize the process steps required for experimental-numerical validation and verification. Typically, this is done within the product development process. In this, highly heterogeneous data must be linked to the respective process steps (as input or output) or stored as metadata. This digitalization strategy enables an interlinked and fully documented workflows allowing accessibility and interoperability at any time. The implementation should aim to fulfill the strict requirements of certification processes by ensuring robust and traceable process chains. Furthermore, it enhances the value of data by improving its reusability and enables more efficient and consistent numerical engineering processes hence also aiding the adoption of novel technology such as digital twins.
Our contribution will demonstrate the development of consistent and traceable process chains for generic composite jet engine components, such as fan blades and the blade containment. It will be put in context to the experimental-numerical validation and verification as well as the framework of the building block approach. Here, selected scenarios relevant to the certification of the components, such as Bird-Strike and Fan-Blade-Off are addressed. The process-chain road map is discussed starting from coupon level, over structural element level up to component level with gradually increasing complexity to provide the required proof of load cases. The main focus is on establishing concepts for continuous documentation and interlinking of numerical process steps to pave the way towards certification by analysis.
The European Community decided to fund the COST Action “HISTRATE”, a project to establish a network of industry and academia partners to investigate and propose a route to Certification by Analysis for advanced composites under high strain rates loading. The present talk will also introduce the network, exemplify the challenges and provide insight into the work in relation to the product development process described.
[1] https://www.histrate.eu