The Challenge

The development of aircraft for civil aviation is driven largely by the economics of the materials constituting the airframe. Improvements in strength and durability can reduce aircraft weight and allow regulators to increase the inspection intervals.

There is a continuous demand for better materials and a greater understanding of how these materials perform in aircraft components. However, introducing a new structural material for an airframe is costly and takes several years, so there is a significant need for better certification processes.

The Challenge

The challenge addressed by this case study was to adapt a wiring optimisation application from KEW to run on a Cloud-based HPC system, so that wiring layouts could be optimised in a feasible length of time and at an acceptable cost. Such a solution would involve computationally intensive simulations that could be run on a pay-per use basis, which would be much cheaper than owning and maintaining a large system and would offer sufficient resources to satisfy peak demands.