Altair Case Studies HyperWorks Assists ACENTISS in Developing Elias, an Ultra-Lightweight Electric Airplane

	HyperWorks Assists ACENTISS in Developing Elias, an Ultra-Lightweight Electric Airplane Altair

HyperWorks Assists ACENTISS in Developing Elias, an Ultra-Lightweight Electric Airplane

Altair

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
Applicable Industries	Aerospace Automotive
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Manufacturing Process Simulation Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing
Services	System Integration Testing & Certification
Challenge	ACENTISS, a company that provides engineering services for structural design, stress and fatigue competencies for metallic and composite structures, was tasked with the development of ELIAS, an all-electric technology demonstrator airplane. The project, named EUROPAS, required the development of a full electric reconnaissance system, datalinks, and a ground control station. Additionally, ACENTISS had to design the structure of the wings and the landing gear. The challenge was to create a lightweight plane that could fly long distances, while also keeping development time and costs to a minimum. To achieve the optimum balance between weight, strength and performance, and to reduce design iterations with the real-world prototype, ACENTISS needed to leverage computer-aided engineering tools, particularly for the structural layout of the composite wings and the kinematics of the landing gear. Read More
About Customer	ACENTISS is an Approved Center of Engineering, Technology and In Service Support that supports clients through all phases of the product life cycle. The company primarily serves the Aerospace, Renewable Energy, and Automotive industries. ACENTISS leverages its knowledge and experience to investigate and develop new technologies, analyze and optimize clients’ processes, transfer engineering know-how, and provide interim management services. In the area of Engineering, Simulation & Optimization, ACENTISS provides engineering services for structural design, stress and fatigue competencies for metallic and composite structures in all project phases. The organization uses advanced simulation techniques to achieve high quality for the developed products and employs numerical optimization methods and evolutionary strategies to ensure a lightweight design at reasonable costs. Read More
Solution	To meet the challenges of the project, ACENTISS utilized the Altair HyperWorks Suite, which includes HyperMesh, HyperView, MotionSolve, and OptiStruct. These tools were used to design, calculate, and proof the composite structure of the plane wings, allowing the engineers to determine the optimal fiber volume of the wings to ensure they were lightweight yet sufficiently stiff. ACENTISS also performed kinematic simulations of the landing gear design and topology optimization to ensure the best possible weight/performance ratio. The optimization enabled ACENTISS to shorten the needed development time until they reached a final valid design with a minimum of weight. The HyperWorks products allowed them to create optimal dimensions of all the components and systems they designed. The components were then produced based on the virtually determined specifications and the new plane passed all certification tests easily. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Applicable Industries

Aerospace

Automotive

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Manufacturing Process Simulation

Virtual Prototyping & Product Testing

Services

System Integration

Testing & Certification

Challenge

ACENTISS, a company that provides engineering services for structural design, stress and fatigue competencies for metallic and composite structures, was tasked with the development of ELIAS, an all-electric technology demonstrator airplane. The project, named EUROPAS, required the development of a full electric reconnaissance system, datalinks, and a ground control station. Additionally, ACENTISS had to design the structure of the wings and the landing gear. The challenge was to create a lightweight plane that could fly long distances, while also keeping development time and costs to a minimum. To achieve the optimum balance between weight, strength and performance, and to reduce design iterations with the real-world prototype, ACENTISS needed to leverage computer-aided engineering tools, particularly for the structural layout of the composite wings and the kinematics of the landing gear.

About Customer

ACENTISS is an Approved Center of Engineering, Technology and In Service Support that supports clients through all phases of the product life cycle. The company primarily serves the Aerospace, Renewable Energy, and Automotive industries. ACENTISS leverages its knowledge and experience to investigate and develop new technologies, analyze and optimize clients’ processes, transfer engineering know-how, and provide interim management services. In the area of Engineering, Simulation & Optimization, ACENTISS provides engineering services for structural design, stress and fatigue competencies for metallic and composite structures in all project phases. The organization uses advanced simulation techniques to achieve high quality for the developed products and employs numerical optimization methods and evolutionary strategies to ensure a lightweight design at reasonable costs.

Solution

To meet the challenges of the project, ACENTISS utilized the Altair HyperWorks Suite, which includes HyperMesh, HyperView, MotionSolve, and OptiStruct. These tools were used to design, calculate, and proof the composite structure of the plane wings, allowing the engineers to determine the optimal fiber volume of the wings to ensure they were lightweight yet sufficiently stiff. ACENTISS also performed kinematic simulations of the landing gear design and topology optimization to ensure the best possible weight/performance ratio. The optimization enabled ACENTISS to shorten the needed development time until they reached a final valid design with a minimum of weight. The HyperWorks products allowed them to create optimal dimensions of all the components and systems they designed. The components were then produced based on the virtually determined specifications and the new plane passed all certification tests easily.

Impact #1	The use of the Altair HyperWorks Suite enabled ACENTISS to establish a faster and less error-prone development process, leading to a higher product quality as more design variants could be evaluated in the same time. The flexible licensing system Altair offers for its suite and within the Altair Partner Alliance also allowed ACENTISS engineers to access almost every tool they needed flexibly, under one licensing agreement, and from one vendor. This flexibility and access to a wide range of tools enabled ACENTISS to react quickly to development requests. The use of HyperWorks helped ACENTISS to optimize component weight and performance, determine detailed component design specifications prior to manufacturing, deliver high product quality, and react flexibly on development requests due to the broad access to needed development software tools.

Impact #1

The use of the Altair HyperWorks Suite enabled ACENTISS to establish a faster and less error-prone development process, leading to a higher product quality as more design variants could be evaluated in the same time. The flexible licensing system Altair offers for its suite and within the Altair Partner Alliance also allowed ACENTISS engineers to access almost every tool they needed flexibly, under one licensing agreement, and from one vendor. This flexibility and access to a wide range of tools enabled ACENTISS to react quickly to development requests. The use of HyperWorks helped ACENTISS to optimize component weight and performance, determine detailed component design specifications prior to manufacturing, deliver high product quality, and react flexibly on development requests due to the broad access to needed development software tools.

Benefit #1	Optimized component weight and performance
Benefit #2	Determined detailed component design specifications prior to manufacturing
Benefit #3	Delivered high product quality

Benefit #1

Optimized component weight and performance

Benefit #2

Determined detailed component design specifications prior to manufacturing

Benefit #3

Delivered high product quality

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Overview

HyperWorks Assists ACENTISS in Developing Elias, an Ultra-Lightweight Electric Airplane

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit