Establishing interoperability is an essential aspect of the often-pursued shift towards Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) of, for example, aircraft. If models are to be the primary information carriers during development, the applied methods to enable interaction between engineering domains need to be modular, reusable, and scalable. Given the long life cycles and often large and heterogeneous development organizations in the aircraft industry, one possible solution is to rely on open standards and tools. In this paper, the standards Functional Mockup Interface (FMI) and System Structure and Parameterization (SSP) are exploited to exchange data between the disciplines of systems simulation and geometry modeling. A method to export data from the 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) Software (SW) CATIA in the SSP format is developed and presented. Analogously, FMI support of the Modeling & Simulation (M&S) tools OMSimulator, OpenModelica, and Dymola is utilized along with the SSP support of OMSimulator. The developed technology is put into context by means of integration with the M&S methodology for aircraft vehicle system development deployed at Saab Aeronautics. Finally, the established interoperability is demonstrated in an industrially relevant usecase. A primary goal of the research is to prototype and demonstrate functionality, enabled by the SSP and FMI standards, that could improve on MBSE methodology implemented in industry and academia.

Designing modern aircraft is not an easy task. Today, it is not enough to optimize aircraft sub-systems at a sub-system level. Instead, a holistic approach is taken whereby the constituent sub-systems need to be designed for the best joint performance. The State-of-the-Art (SotA) in simulating and exchanging simulation models is moving forward at a fast pace. As such, the feasible use of simulation models has increased and additional benefits can be exploited, such as analysing coupled sub-systems in simulators. Furthermore, if aircraft sub-system simulation models are to be utilized to their fullest extent, opensource tooling and the use of open standards, interoperability between domain specific modeling tools, alongside robust and automated processes for model Verification and Validation (V&V) are required.

Modelling and Simulation is extensively used for aircraft vehicle system development at Saab Aeronautics in Linköping, Sweden. There is an increased desire to simulate interacting sub-systems together in order to reveal, and get an understanding of, the present cross-coupling effects early on in the development cycle of aircraft vehicle systems. The co-simulation methods implemented at Saab require a significant amount of manual effort, resulting in scarcely updated simulation models, and challenges associated with simulation model scalability, etc. The Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) standard is identified as a possible enabler for efficient and standardized export and co-simulation of simulation models developed in a wide variety of tools. However, the ability to export industrially relevant models in a standardized way is merely the first step in simulating the targeted coupled sub-systems. Selecting a platform for efficient simulation of the system under investigation is the next step. Here, a strategy for adapting coupled Modelica models of aircraft vehicle systems to TLM-based simulation is presented. An industry-grade application example is developed, implementing this strategy, to be used for preliminary investigation and evaluation of a cosimulation framework supporting the Transmission Line element Method (TLM). This application example comprises a prototype of a small-scale aircraft vehicle systems simulator. Examples of aircraft vehicle systems are environmental control systems, fuel systems, and hydraulic systems. The tightly coupled models included in the application example are developed in Dymola, OpenModelica, and Matlab/Simulink. The application example is implemented in the commercial modelling tool Dymola to provide a reference for a TLM-based master simulation tool, supporting both FMI and TLM. The TLM-based master simulation tool TLMSimulator is investigated in terms of model import according to the FMI standard with respect to a specified set of industrial needs and requirements.

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The Environmental Control System (ECS) of the Saab Gripen fighter provides a number of vital functions, such as provision of coolant air to the avionics, comfort air to the cockpit, and pressurization of the aircraft fuel system. To support system design, a detailed simulation model has been developed in the Modelica-based tool Dymola. The model needs to be a "good system representation", during both steady-state operation and relevant dynamic events, if reliable predictions are to be made regarding cooling performance, static loads in terms of pressure and temperature, and various other types of system analyses. A framework for semi-automatic validation of the ECS model against measurements is developed and described in this paper. The framework extends a proposed formal methodology of semi-automatic model validation against in-situ measurements to the model development process implemented at Saab.Applied methods for validating the model in steady-state operation and during relevant dynamic events are presented in detail. The developed framework includes automatic filtering of measurement points defined as steady-state operation and visualization techniques applied on validation experiments conducted in the previously mentioned points. The proposed framework both simplify continuous validation throughout the system development process and enables a smooth transition towards a more independent verification and validation process.