Auxiliary geometry: Compartments and pathways
In order to facilitate the layout of systems architectures, the aircraft model can be equipped with auxiliary geometries including a flexible compartment model and pathway model for connections between systems components such as cables, ducts, or pipes. Compartments provide comprehensive geometric data, including volumes and adjacent surfaces, which can be directly linked to internal thermal analysis models or external analysis tools. Pathways allow the definition of permissible connection routes between components and are prerequisite to automatic routing.
Systems component library
The component library contains basic parametric component models covering systems from Flight Control (FCS) and Environmental Control Systems (ECS) to Electrical Power Generation and Hydraulic Systems. Each component can be accompanied by an in-depth hypertext documentation detailing design intent, parameter descriptions and suggested usage to help systems engineers select the appropriate building blocks for their investigation.
Graphical definition of component connections
Part of the parametric description of system components are connector points, or Ports. Ports constitute a specific implementation of Pacelab Suite’s Smart Linking technology, which allow the graphical definition of physical and abstract connections between components. If the user draws a line between two electrical components, Pacelab SysArc will create the required power summation formulas or propagate voltages and automatically take into account the voltage drops induced by the resistance of the physical cable connection.
Automatic routing
After the logical connections between the components have been defined, the automatic routing creates the physical counterparts of the logical connections, automatically adding weight, gauging electric or hydraulic losses, etc. The routing algorithm (Dijkstra's algorithm for electric, Steiner tree algorithm for fluid connections) seeks the shortest possible route between two system components along the previously defined pathways. An initial sizing selects cables, pipes and ducts with suitable diameters from a data table of standard parts.
Sizing with flight conditions and failure modes
Flight conditions and failure modes establish the sizing conditions of a given systems architecture by identifying critical cases and limiting values. Flight conditions account for systems components’ changing operational states during the course of a flight mission and allow calculating the power requirements and heat dissipation of the aircraft systems under a specific set of conditions. Failure modes represent typical failure scenarios and are defined by a set of failed electric or hydraulic providers such as sources, generators, converters or distribution elements. Applying a failure mode to a systems architecture will result in a number of unsupplied consumers and prompt a switch to the alternative providers if previously defined in the architecture setup.
