The research on weight reduction led Techspace Aero to develop a new type of rotor for its low pressure compressors, the Bladed druM, abbreviated BluM®. Lightweight and innovative, this rotor will participate in the preparation of new generation boosters which the Walloon company has made a specialty for.
The project’s objective is to develop an advanced platform for certification under extreme vibration environments, such as components for aircraft engines. Indeed, the new aviation requirements demand ever higher optimization for new components of aircraft engines. This implies more and more sophisticated numerical simulations with reduced security coefficients. Therefore, these calculations require, more than ever, experimental validations.
The objective of the project is to combine the competences of various Walloon partners to conduct research for the development of a Smart-Pod System : it refers to an embedded container for aircrafts, carrying a machine gun and 12.7mm guided rocket tubes .
This development will be done in parallel with the development of the viewfinder Hudi, launched by FN Herstal, and its functional connection.
Regarding Smart-Pod, the lines of research are:
Based on the cluster strategy redefinition work, it was asked to cluster's companies to identify their training needs. To maintain or improve their performance and to get successful R&D and investments projects, the challenge was to identify the goals and objectives of the training actions that will have to be conducted.
Trainings requested by companies and included in the SW_CAMPUSS project are essential for improving the skills of workers, their profitability and thus improving the productivity of their companies.
SW_SOCOEV project addresses the needs of the space market. In this project, the partners combine their expertise in numerical multi-physics simulation and characterization of behavior laws of materials like glue, and equipment testing and optical measurements, to meet new challenges in designing innovative opto-mechanical systems.
In a competitive environment with emerging countries, reducing overall development lead-time is linked with a significant reduction in non-recurring development costs and recurring costs. Moreover, the end-user demand requires a reduction of operating expenses requiring to ensure better control of the behavior of equipment over time in relation to different environmental parameters.
The EI-OPT project focuses on a basic industrial research in order to allow two Walloon SMEs, Numflo and Open Engineering, to upgrade their existing simulation tools into an integrated design environment for optimizing aeronautical industrial components, especially rotating machines and helicopters.
In order to have competitive advantages over the market, the following areas will be covered:
One of the major challenges for aeronautics is the reduction of engine specific fuel consumption by increasing the engine bypass ratio. This involves :
It is therefore necessary to optimize the performance and the control of heat exchangers
In Virtual Prototyping approaches, the optimization of industrial configurations, taking into account objectives and constraints, is a must to ensure real technological progress.
However, industrial processes are often affected by numerous uncertainties : operational, material, geometrical, …
The project SW_ORFI aims at developing robust and reliable approaches in numerical optimization by incorporating the uncertainties effects into its optimization algorithms.
Following 15 years of continuous growth, GDTech will gather all services and its workforce in one single place.
Early 2015, GDTech finally acquired an existing building in the economic park of Alleur (near Liège). Thanks to the help of the Walloon region, this 800 sqm building will be arranged and furbished to answer the needs of the Engineering office.
Later on, it will be extended with an additional 600 sqm office area and with a 300 sqm industrial hall.
