Introduction

Purpose

The Aircraft Dynamics Library, or the ADL, targets design and verification of the entire aircraft package, coupling sizing and performance with detailed design of sub-systems.

Key features involve:

• Aircraft level sizing and synthesis,
• Capturing scaling laws on the aicraft level,
• Mixing handbook and physics-based models,
• Simulating the six degrees of freedom for aircraft dynamics, and
• Configurable model fidelity for faster simulation and right complexity level.

Modeling and simulation

Several simulation tools are essentially user-interfaces for setting the parameters of fixed simulation models. The model topology is static, and there is limited flexibility in modeling fidelity. This means that the actual equations that describe the model are impossible, or difficult, to modify by users. This Modelon Modelica library offers a different approach and provides much more flexibility. In combination with a Modelica simulation tool, this library allows to graphically model a given system by reconfiguring pre-defined templates, and simulate the system behavior. This is important to understand, as it broadens the scope of possible modeling activities, and enables additional working procedures such as the following:

• Build models that describe the phenomena of interest,
• Reconfigure an existing model template, and tune the model parameters,
• Use the models to set up an experiment that exposes the phenomena of interest,
• Simulate the experiment, and
• Analyze the results.

This Modelon library contains a large set of pre-defined models and templates that makes most modeling tasks straightforward. For many standard tasks it is possible to use the library in the same way as a pure simulation tool, i.e. it is sufficient to choose the right model, define all parameters and start the simulation.

Flexibility with prudence

It is possible for users to modify and extend most of the models in the library, and also to complement the library with custom models. It is also possible to mix with model components from other libraries. This is one of the major benefits of describing models using a high-level modeling language like Modelica. Customization of models and components can be done either from the graphical user interface and diagram view, or, for advanced users, by typing Modelica source code. There is also great flexibility in setting up experiments and analyzing results. The flexibility implies great freedom for users to define models and experiments, but may also require more attention to details and understanding if they work on the advanced user (Modelica source code) level.

Modelon libraries

All Modelon libraries are compatible and can be combined to solve specific engineering design tasks.Interesting libraries for aerospace solutions include the Environmental Control, Fuel System, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, and Electric Power libraries. Please note that these libraries can also be used as a stand alone solution.