Modelon

Modelon is proud to be a partner in the Turbo electRic Aircraft Design Environment (TRADE) project, funded by the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Developed in partnership with Mälardalen University, Technische Universität Berlin, The University of Nottingham and Modelon, TRADE tackles today’s growing need for improvements in aircraft fuel efficiency and emissions. A proposed solution, through TRADE, is replacing the gas turbines in an aircraft with turbo-electric propulsion or boosted turbofans. Specifically, TRADE researchers will look at modeling a design in which electric drives will boost gas turbines that generate extra thrust for the aircraft; thus handling power peaks that otherwise need to be covered by the gas turbine. To test the feasibility of such a design will require researchers to step away from conventional engineering methods, as these methods rely on statistical data and classic problem break-downs. Therefore, TRADE will focus on optimizing the entire aircraft package using a combination of physics-based simulation to design an energy efficient and commercially viable aircraft.

Modelon will coordinate the TRADE project and provide libraries from the Modelon Library Suite as well as the OPTMICA Compiler Toolkit as the simulation backbone of the project. Recognized as a leader in advanced aerospace and aeronautical systems design, Modelon aims for the TRADE research to develop breakthrough technology advancements that impact future aircraft system modeling and simulation.

The project is expected to run until February 2020. To learn more about the Modelon Library Suite and OPTMICA Compiler Toolkit, contact us here.

This project has received funding from the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 755458.