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Aerospace and defense
Safran Landing Systems
Using LMS Imagine.Lab Amesim enables tier one aerospace supplier to improve focus on innovation and R&D
Product
LMS
Challenges
Balance local electrohydraulic
generation system sizing and
performance early in product
development
Assess the risk of overheating
in the Airbus A380’s new
steering system
Replace time-consuming,
reverse-calibration methods
Keys to success
Use application-oriented
interfaces and tools
Leverage multi-domain
libraries
Use flexible licensing system
Develop efficient project
assistance
Results
Improved focus on innovation
and R&D
Stopped use of the legacy
code development and
reduced maintenance costs
Integrated in the current
production pipeline and
introduced efficient simulation processes
Reduced physical testing
Safran Landing Systems
leverages Siemens PLM Software
solution to enhance efficiency of
its simulation processes
When every gram counts
To save weight on the A380 superjumbo
aircraft, Safran Landing Systems used LMS
Imagine.Lab Amesim™ software and the
software’s landing gear design capabilities
to design an innovative, decentralized
hydraulic generation system with lightweight micro-pumps that delivers power
locally to emergency braking and landing
gear steering systems.
Size definitely matters, especially when
you’re developing the world’s largest
passenger jet. With an overall length of 73
meters (m) and a wingspan of nearly 80
m, the Airbus A380 provides seating for
525 passengers and has a range of 15,200
kilometers (km) or more than 9,400 miles,
which is sufficient to fly nonstop from New
York to Hong Kong. To gain maximum fuel
efficiency and payload capacity, weight
savings was a must when developing this
massive plane. Composites and other
lightweight materials account for more
than 25 percent of its structure, and engineers scrutinized every aspect of the
aircraft to further trim its weight.
Of particular interest were heavy hydraulic
lines running the length of the aircraft,
from large centralized pumps to equipment such as brakes, landing gears and
In addition to emergency braking on all 20 wheels of the A380, the
LEHGS also provides backup hydraulic power for the all-important
nose wheel steering system. © Airbus SAS 2013 – All rights reserved.
the nose wheel steering system.
Ordinarily, large commercial jets have
three sets of redundant hydraulics: two
primary circuits and a third backup for
safety, all adding up to a big load of hefty
piping.
www.siemens.com/plm/lms
Engineers saved weight wherever possible to maximize payload capacity of the A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft. © Airbus SAS 2013 – All rights reserved.
“Simulation enabled us to
anticipate and reduce the
inherent development risks
of a new technology by
incorporating an upstream
validation regarding the
technical choices.”
Jerome Fraval
Systems Modeling Lead
Engineer
Safran Landing Systems
To reduce this bulk, the all-hydraulic
backup circuit was replaced with a decentralized fluid-power generation system on
the A380. Signals from electronic control
units (ECUs) activate small multiple electrically-driven micro-pumps, each located
close to the system to be controlled. The
micro-pumps provide 5,000 pounds per
square inch (psi) or 345 bar of local
hydraulic pressure over short runs of
small-diameter lightweight piping for
braking and steering, so it’s always available in an emergency.
over 30 years, the company’s customers
include 250 airlines, 20 military air forces
and major global aircraft manufacturers.
A tall order for the engineers
This local electrical hydraulic generation
system (LEHGS), the first in a commercial
airliner, was developed by Safran Landing
Systems, a subsidiary of the SAFRAN Group
and a global leader in aircraft landing and
steering systems. An Airbus partner for
Compounding the difficulty, demanding
deadlines and budgetary constraints
prohibited numerous time-consuming and
costly physical tests of system mockups.
Instead, work in designing and optimizing
the performance of this first-ever system
would have to be done early in the plane’s
In working to optimize system performance, the engineering team faced major
challenges in integrating and sizing the
large number of different physical parts,
assemblies and subsystems for the
mechanical, electrical and hydraulic
systems. Moreover, they needed to assess
any risk factors, such as electrical
overheating.
“The A380 enters into service with its nose wheel
steering system control loop only tuned with
LMS Amesim. Tests were just performed to
confirm the good system performance.”
Jerome Fraval
Systems Modeling Lead Engineer
Safran Landing Systems
development, before any hardware was
built and at the same time the design of
other aircraft systems was underway. That
was a tall order that not many tier one
suppliers in the aircraft industry would
take on.
Adopting advanced predictive software
Safran Landing Systems met these challenges with the help of LMS Amesim
software from Siemens PLM Software,
which the company had implemented on
previous projects for predicting the behavior of complex multi-domain intelligent
systems. Engineers began by selecting and
piecing together individual components
and subsystems from a library of
predefined items: hydraulic resistance,
hydraulic component design, electromechanical, electric motors and drives,
“With LMS Amesim, Safran
Landing Systems is capable
of tuning complex multidomain systems without
Unlike conventional system modeling
languages that require computer program- performing a large set of
tests on the bench.”
mers to write software, the overall system
model is created graphically using LMS
Jerome Fraval
Amesim, which prompts engineers to
Systems Modeling Lead
enter parameters where necessary. In this
Engineer
way, the software can be used to create a
Safran Landing Systems
multi-domain system model from the
overall conceptual information of interconnected parts and subsystems without
requiring a full 3D geometry representation. This enables engineers to simulate
and predict the behavior of intelligent
systems long before detailed computeraided design (CAD) geometry becomes
available.
thermal resistance, thermal hydraulics,
thermal, hydraulics, and electrical basics.
“Simulation results obtained in the early
project stages using LMS Amesim were later
confirmed on test benches with very good
accuracy.”
Jerome Fraval
Systems Modeling Lead Engineer
Safran Landing Systems
Throughout this process, Safran Landing
Systems system engineers took advantage
of convenient and cost-effective access to
the solution thanks to the system’s flexible
licensing arrangement, enabling them to
optimize the use of specific modules and
libraries while lowering overall system
simulation expenses.
Simulating complex behavior
The modeling and analysis capabilities of
LMS Amesim allowed Safran Landing
Systems to analyze system hydraulic
behavior in terms of performance, stability
and robustness. Engineers also used the
model to study the thermal characteristics
of the hydraulic circuit and evaluate the
need for heat exchangers. These results
were then used to establish the sizing,
output and other product specifications for
the entire hydraulic power generation
system, including the tank, pump and
accumulator.
By using the software’s landing gear
design capabilities, engineers were also
able to explore a large set of parameters
and scenarios. When developing a steering
system, for example, various combinations
of components and systems (actuators,
motors, valves, ECU, etc.) could be
compared from specification to validation,
thus significantly improving steering
system quality.
Micro-pumps provide 5,000 psi of local hydraulic pressure over short runs of small-diameter lightweight piping for braking
and steering, and are readily available in an emergency.
Solutions/Services
LMS Imagine.Lab Amesim
www.siemens.com/plm/
lms-amesim
Customer’s primary business
Safran Landing Systems is a
global leader in the design,
development, manufacture
and support of landing gear
systems. The company,
which is part of SAFRAN S.A.,
employs 7,000 people
across 17 locations and seven
countries, and also provides
aircraft systems equipment
and maintenance, repair and
overhaul (MRO) services.
www.safranmbd.com
Customer location
Vélizy
France
LMS Amesim predictions of system performance matched bench tests of actual system behavior.
With these predictive capabilities, Safran
Landing Systems was able to simulate the
behavior of the electrohydraulic system,
validate system power-generating performance and enable engineers to accurately
size components early in the development
of the A380. This significantly reduced
dependency on numerous physical
prototypes.
“With LMS Amesim, Safran Landing
Systems is capable of tuning complex
multi-domain systems without performing
a large set of tests on the bench,” says
Jerome Fraval, a systems modeling lead
engineer at Safran Landing Systems.
Reduce guesswork
“Simulation enabled us to anticipate and
reduce the inherent development risks of a
new technology by incorporating an
upstream validation regarding the
technical choices,” says Fraval. “Simulation
results obtained in the early project stages
using LMS Amesim were later confirmed
on test benches with very good accuracy.”
In this manner, the landing gear solution
enabled the members of the engineering
team to significantly reduce guesswork
and freed them to focus on innovation and
research and development (R&D).
“Safran Landing Systems was able to
predict systems and equipment performances – including critical new
technologies – on the entire flight
domain,” says Fraval. “The A380 enters
into service with its nose wheel steering
system control loop only tuned with LMS
Amesim. Tests were just performed to
confirm the good system performance.”
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