From CAD to Mission: Fuel Systems Proven Before First Flight
Solution Overview
The safe, consistent operation of an aircraft fuel system is a critical design consideration, as even minor disturbances can have serious flight consequences. Design complexity is further increased by the many transient conditions, including forces from aircraft maneuvers, possible coupling to the oil and cooling systems, and variable ambient conditions. Successful design therefore depends on integrated, physics-based and AI-enabled models that test and validate the fuel supply system before the aircraft first flies.
GT-SUITE enables engineers to predict pressures, temperatures, flow rates, and cavitation risk throughout the system. Engineers can optimize the design by evaluating different pump and line sizes before hardware exists. The software can simulate tank behavior during pitch, roll, and negative-g maneuvers to confirm tank fuel ports remain submerged. Fuel thermal management can be easily studied with ambient and integrated system heat loads to ensure temperature remains in a safe operating band. An integrated machine learning tool can further extend these studies by supporting diagnostic tools such as system fault detection.
APPLICATION HIGHLIGHTS
Advanced Features
Analyze fuel transport, thermal management, inerting, and system dynamics under realistic operating conditions.
Apply real flight accelerations to tank geometries and see how liquid levels respond. Confirm that fuel ports stay covered, so the engine receives a steady supply. Capture heat transfer with the tank walls to track fluid temperatures and pressures and predict fuel evaporation rates.
GT-SUITE automatically detects and models cavitation whenever local pressure reaches the fluid’s vapor pressure. This gives you accurate predictions of pump and valve performance under the most demanding operating conditions.
Track free and dissolved gas separately throughout the fuel system. Captures the release of dissolved gases from the liquid at low pressure, to more accurately capture fluid properties at these operating points.
Pair 1D flow with GT’s native 3D thermal FE solver to get the accuracy of 3D conjugate heat transfer at near-1D speed. High-resolution thermal models easily integrate into the system-level simulation.
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