Development of a Distributed Integrated Modeling Environment to Study the Impact of Subsystem Performance on an Air Vehicle Design (2005)

The Distributed Analysis Modeling Environment (DAME) is a system developed for the AFRL Propulsion Directorate Power Division to serve as an integrated modeling environment. The focus of the system is to facilitate communication between researchers in different areas of expertise and to allow them to share models with a minimal amount of confusion and effort. As air vehicle design moves into the future, the trend toward increased integration of systems and subsystems with greater interdependence between these systems requires increased collaboration earlier and earlier in the design process. The earlier this integration can be taken into account and designed for, the better the end product will be. By combining modeling efforts earlier in the process through integrated system models or “systems of systems,” better decisions can be made of where the current technology is lacking and where increased research effort needs to be focused. The DAME is a tool that will allow the creation of integrated air vehicle models to enable researchers to take advantage of the current information and knowledge as it becomes available, rather than relying on potentially outdated models. In this paper, we detail the architecture of the DAME illustrating how it was implemented in a multi-user Windows Server environment utilizing Phoenix Integration’s ModelCenter and Analysis Server software. In addition, we present an integrated air vehicle model developed for the DAME environment. The model consists of a number of subsystem blocks, including engine, power and thermal management systems; linked to an air frame model developed in a program called FLight OPtimzation System (FLOPS). With the demonstration we illustrated connectivity between the different models through the DAME environment, both locally and across the network. I. Introduction S we move into the future, increased computational power and communication capabilities allow greater interaction and collaboration between researchers during all stages of development. One area where these capabilities are extremely valuable is during the initial design stages where new concepts and technologies are evaluated and tested for effectiveness and viability. In this domain, researchers in one area of expertise do not necessarily know what others are doing, other than basic requirements handed down from above. Furthermore, it is not always clear what is the best technology to move forward with. There is usually no concrete method to illustrate what technology is going to improve the end product and this was the case in our work with the air vehicle platform. Our objective was to provide a tool to assist in the evaluation process. We wanted to enable researchers from different backgrounds and research areas to share development and modeling work in order to evaluate how their particular technology would fit into the larger picture of the air vehicle platform. This allows more informed design decisions based on how a particular technology will impact the capabilities of the end product. To meet this