Engineering Domain Interoperability Using the System Structure and Parameterization (SSP) Standard

Abstract

Establishing interoperability is an essential aspect of the often-pursued shift towards Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) of, for example, aircraft. If models are to be the primary information carriers during development, the applied methods to enable interaction between engineering domains need to be modular, reusable, and scalable. Given the long life cycles and often large and heterogeneous development organizations in the aircraft industry, one possible solution is to rely on open standards and tools. In this paper, the standards Functional Mockup Interface (FMI) and System Structure and Parameterization (SSP) are exploited to exchange data between the disciplines of systems simulation and geometry modeling. A method to export data from the 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) Software (SW) CATIA in the SSP format is developed and presented. Analogously, FMI support of the Modeling & Simulation (M&S) tools OMSimulator, OpenModelica, and Dymola is utilized along with the SSP support of OMSimulator. The developed technology is put into context by means of integration with the M&S methodology for aircraft vehicle system development deployed at Saab Aeronautics. Finally, the established interoperability is demonstrated in an industrially relevant usecase. A primary goal of the research is to prototype and demonstrate functionality, enabled by the SSP and FMI standards, that could improve on MBSE methodology implemented in industry and academia.

Modelica Association Standards and Surrogate Modeling to Enable Multi-Fidelity Simulations

“…The implementation of the targeted aircraft cooling system Modelica model is described in detail by Hällqvist et al in (Hällqvist, Munjulury, et al 2021). This particular model represents one essential part of a broader simulator that incorporates models and information from the engineering domains of hardware and physics-based modeling, control development and software modeling, architecture and requirements modeling, and geometry modeling using 3D CAD.…”

“…The atmospheric conditions impact the friction heating and heat transfer from the aircraft to the surroundings. The equations describing this are available in (Hällqvist, Munjulury, et al 2021). The cooling system incorporated software then regulates the flow to keep the fluid temperature in the feed line at 20 • C.…”

“…This purpose often requires information gathered from different engineering disciplines. To achieve this exchange efficiently, standardized means to communicate and share digital artifacts across modeling domain boundaries are necessary (Hällqvist, Munjulury, et al 2021).…”

“…This challenge only becomes bigger if considering the long life cycles of aircraft as life-cycle information needs to be aggregated, with traceability links, and made available to the end user and decision-makers. Failure to address any of these highlighted aspects may, in the end, lead to sub-optimal designs founded on simulation results with in-accurate credibility (Hällqvist, Munjulury, et al 2021).…”

Realizing Interoperability between MBSE Domains in Aircraft System Development

“…This paper is an extension to the work presented in [15]; particularly focusing on scalability aspects of the previous research efforts. The paper is structured in the following way.…”