Leonardo DRS has utilized Altair’s electromagnetic digital twin solution to capture in-flight behavior of helicopter radar systems. The partnership between the two companies resulted in creating a digital twin of the radar antenna’s structural and electromagnetic systems, allowing them to track deformations and electrical changes in the radar antenna’s design, and accordingly optimize Leonardo’s subsequent antenna design performance. Altair's digital twin solution allows future antenna designs to be optimized without using expensive prototypes.
The Challenge
Leonardo’s electronics division was assessing antenna-transmission loss of a helicopter radar system that was caused by in-flight vibration to the helicopter’s radome. As vibration deformed the radome and antenna within, the antenna’s electromagnetic behavior changed. Leonardo needed to capture the changes at the antenna-system level. However, physically measuring deformation and tracking electromagnetic behavior during flight was impossible. Leonardo needed a solution to predict the behavior and optimize the design of the antenna to meet mission requirements.
The Solution
Altair and Leonardo used a multiphysics approach to build a structural and electromagnetic digital twin of the antenna system and optimize the radome design. Leonardo supplied geometric information and boundary conditions for the antenna. With this, Altair created an Altair® OptiStruct® model and predicted deformation resulting from vibration impacting the antenna. Leonardo validated the model using bench-test data where antenna vibration was captured via sensor and measured.
Next, the team used Altair® Feko® to feed the deformed shape data into a model, evaluate antenna behavior, and determine the effect of antenna-plate deformation on the radiation pattern.
Leveraging Altair® romAI™ with Altair Activate® , they generated a reduced-order model (ROM) to decrease simulation time while maintaining the accuracy of high-fidelity simulations. Activate also calculated key performance indicators of the antenna’s radiation pattern based on Feko results obtained with the nominal shape of the antenna plate. For the radome, the team predicted material properties with Altair® Multiscale Designer® to minimize weight and intrusion impact – resulting from a bird strike for example – and used Altair® Radioss® to solve the highly nonlinear problems involving dynamic loadings of in-flight conditions.
Results
Altair correlated deformation to the antenna’s design, tracked changes based on vibration, and calculated the antenna’s electromagnetic signature. With this, Leonardo could optimize the next physical build version of the antenna without using expensive physical prototypes. Altair’s solution also closed loops between Leonardo’s structural and electronics engineering departments by enabling teams to evaluate the radome and antenna system in a unified ecosystem.
“By using an accurate, accessible digital twin, we can easily optimize the multiphysics performance and evaluate design sensitivities while also reducing physical prototyping.” Said Romano Lazurlo, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Electronics Division, Leonardo S.p.A.
Collaboration around the digital twin mitigated information silos and slashed turnaround times. The streamlined workflow produced valuable insights into the antenna radiation patterns, physics drivers, and best trade-offs among technical requirements early in the development cycle, saving the team time and technical resources.
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