FEKO's Role in Electromagnetic Protection Design for Civil Aircrafts: A Case Study of COMAC

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) was faced with the challenge of designing the country’s first homegrown large passenger aircraft. With the rapid development of science and technology, more airborne radio equipment was being installed in aircrafts, leading to a lot of antennas with a very wide frequency range. However, due to the limited length of the aircraft itself, there was not much space for antenna placement. Antenna pattern distortion caused by the aircraft body and inter-antenna electromagnetic compatibility were the highlighted concerns. During take-off, landing or flight, an aircraft may be irradiated by highpower radio transceiver from ground, air or ships at sea, causing electromagnetic environmental problems. These electromagnetic waves, called high-intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF), can induce electromagnetic fields around airborne equipment or induce high-frequency current on interconnected cables, resulting in function disorder or loss of key/critical equipment, endangering the aircraft’s ability to fly safely and land. Another problem was electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), an interdisciplinary gradually built with the growing complexity of electronic equipments and systems. A comprehensive electromagnetic simulation and analysis tool was urgently needed to eliminate the personnel and equipment hazards caused by electromagnetic radiation fields and to improve the safety and reliability for aircrafts in complex electromagnetic environments.

The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) was established in 2008 to implement strategy for large aircrafts. The former First Aircraft Design Institute Shanghai Branch of China Aviation Industry Corporation I was restructured and incorporated into COMAC in the same year and was renamed as the Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute of COMAC. The missions of Shanghai Aircraft Design include design, testing, pre-research and key technology research of ARJ21 aircraft and C919 passenger plane, complete independent intellectual property rights of ARJ21 aircraft and large aircraft C919 for which China has completely independent intellectual property rights. The Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute of COMAC has successfully designed the country’s first homegrown large passenger aircraft, covering various areas such as overall pneumatic, strength, structure, integrated avionics, electrical, flight control, hydraulic, environmental control, power, fuel, standard material, airworthiness and information systems.