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ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA ›› 2020, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (9): 23615-023615.doi: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2020.23615

• Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Digital twin and its aerospace applications

MENG Songhe1, YE Yumei1, YANG Qiang1,2, HUANG Zhen3, XIE Weihua1   

  1. 1. National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology for National Defense on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China;
    2. Postdoctoral Research Center for Material Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China;
    3. Institute of Manned Space System Engineering, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China
  • Received:2019-10-28 Revised:2019-12-12 Online:2020-09-15 Published:2020-03-13
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China (11902101); China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (2018M641815); National Natural Science Foundation of China (11672088)

Abstract: Digital twin, the link between the physical and digital worlds, has currently attracted extensive attention both at home and abroad. Through establishment of a digital model of a physical system, real-time monitoring of the system status, and driving of the dynamic model update to describe and forecast system behaviors more accurately, the online decision optimization and feedback control are realized. In this paper, analyses show that compared with a general simulation model, the digital twin has outstanding characteristics of being centralized, dynamic, and integral. The development of the digital twin requires the support of complex system modeling, sensing and monitoring, big data, dynamic data-driven analysis and decision, and software platform technology. In the field of aerospace, digital twin can be applied to the design, development, manufacturing, assembly, operation and maintenance of aircraft. This article focuses on a case of application of the airframe digital twin to life prediction and maintenance decision, which exhibits advantages of lower maintenance frequencies and maintenance costs compared with the periodic maintenance. Finally, a preliminary application framework of a ground accompanying flight system established for space stations and reusable spacecraft is demonstrated.

Key words: digital twin, data driven, model update, aircraft, maintenance

CLC Number: