Virtual Product House (VPH)
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With the Virtual Product House (VPH) in Bremen, DLR is pursuing the goal of closely cooperating with industry partners, the scientific community and public authorities to implement an integration and test centre for the virtual simulation and certification of components and technologies, as well as their integration into the overall aircraft.
The VPH was funded through a start-up project by the State of Bremen and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In the follow-on project "VPH 2.0 - Virtual Product Development for Climate-Friendly Aircraft", DLR worked with Bremen-based industrial partners to develop virtual and physical components for future wing moveables and hydrogen tanks. The VPH2.0 project was funded by the Bremen LuRaFo and the EU REACT programme.
Embedding of the Virtual Product House into DLR's Strategy for the 'Digitalisation of Aviation'
Together with four recently founded institutes, the VPH is an integral part of the DLR aeronautics research strategy for the ‘digitalisation of aviation’.
It is intended to serve as a dynamic and flexible network platform, where various DLR institutes work together with partners to pursue the ambitious goals of virtual design, testing and certification. The DLR virtual certification strategy aims to reduce the duration and cost of certification tests by using complementary virtual (that is, simulation-based) flight and ground tests, leading up to a complete virtual certification process as a long-term goal. This long-term vision is part of the virtual product as one of the guiding concepts of the DLR aeronautics programme. It intends to virtually represent the aircraft with all its characteristics over the entire lifecycle. Therefore, a multiphysics, multiscale and multifidelity approach is required to closely link design and flight physics capabilities with virtual testing, production and operations.
Field of research
- Virtual (aircraft/wing/movables) design
- Virtual (systems and structural) testing and certification
- Virtual production and manufacturing
- Software engineering and integration
The first industrial use case in the VPH start-up project (duration 2019-2022, funded by the state of Bremen / ERDF) was the multifunctional control surface (flap) for the intelligent wing of a commercial aircraft.
In the initial project, a digitally integrated process chain of design, production and test steps was realised using the example of the wing flap. With the VPH end-to-end process, industrial wing and flap components can be developed more efficiently, precisely and with reduced risk. Also, time and costs for testing and certification can be saved by pre-simulations of production and test steps already in the design phase.
The DLR VPH is also focusing on the virtual/physical product development of cryogenic hydrogen tanks (e.g. in the VPH2.0 project) with the aim of their efficient design, integration and certification for emission-reduced and climate-friendly aircraft concepts. Industrial cooperation partners for the LH2 tank use case are Airbus and further ECOMAT stakeholders, with the perspective towards the planned ECOMAT Hydrogen Campus (EHC).
VPH Partner Landscape
The Virtual Product House as an integration platform is based on interdisciplinary engineering and software teams and a flexible partner network. As such, several DLR institutes with expertise in various disciplines (for example, aerodynamics, structures, systems, software and simulation) work together at the VPH in Bremen in a collaborative way. The activities of the VPH are also closely linked to the research topics of the newly founded DLR institutes and are embedded into DLR’s strategy for the 'digitalisation of aeronautics'.
A key objective and strength of the VPH is its close cooperation with the aviation industry. The following industry partners for example are participating in the VPH, e.g. via projects or the VPH advisory board:
- Airbus Operations (Bremen)
- Liebherr Aerospace
- IABG
- FFT Produktionssysteme
The VPH also cooperates with universities, certification authorities (e.g. the EASA) and the software industry to address the ambitious goals towards virtual or simulation-based certification.