ONERA is the French national aerospace research centre. It is a public research establishment, with 8 major facilities in France and about 2,000 employees, incl. 1,500 scientists, engineers & technicians. ONERA conducts application-oriented research, which is designed to support the competitiveness and creativity of the aerospace and defence industries. ONERA covers all the disciplines and techniques needed to drive progress in aerospace: aerodynamics, flight dynamics, propulsion, structural strength, materials, optics and laser, acoustics, radar and electromagnetism, electronics, systems, robotics, information processing. The Multi-Physics for Energetics Department (DMPE) conducts research to identify and understand the physical phenomena in energetics and to proceed with their description. It is in charge of the implementation of physical models for combustion, internal and external flows in the multidisciplinary numerical codes developed at ONERA and of their validation based on experiments in representative conditions. This implementation is also conducted to model the coupling phenomena (e.g. heat transfer and structure, aeroacoustics and its interaction with materials & multiphase flows).
Research department: Information Processing and Systems Department
The DTIS (Information Processing and Systems Department) conducts study and research related to methods and tools for certification, autonomy, multidisciplinary design, systems of systems, intelligence and surveillance, applied mathematics. Its activities concern goals in aeronautics, space and defence, with these main areas of application:
- Aircraft (transport aircraft, fighter jets, UAVs, airships, helicopters, etc.)
- Aerospace systems (air transport system, launch vehicles, satellites, etc.)
- Information systems (monitoring, localisation systems, etc.)
- Defense systems (missiles, systems of systems, etc.)
Research unit: Multidisciplinary methods, integrated concepts (M2CI)
M2CI (Multidisciplinary methods, integrated concepts) takes advantage of the applications-methods duality in the field of aerospace vehicle design for:
- On the one hand, developing methods inspired by the needs of applications and validated on representative cases of these needs
- On the other hand, proposing and assessing innovative integrated concepts for aircraft or launch vehicles, the definition of which is improved by the use of appropriate design methods
The developed methods (optimization algorithms, MDO formulations, surrogate models, uncertainties management) aim at increasing the number of disciplines covered, improving multi-fidelity exploration of the design space, and quantifying uncertainties in a multidisciplinary framework. From the application viewpoint, the goal is to promote innovative concept ideas (e.g., hybrid-electric aircraft, reusable winged launch vehicles), from initial exploration to expert assessment for the benefit of the sector's manufacturers, including collaborative approaches at national or European level. Lastly, the team promotes:
- capitalization of the models and methods in the form of building blocks integrated within a shared design environment at ONERA
- validation of certain concepts or technologies through the specification and deployment of demonstrators.
It seeks to develop national or international cooperation with other laboratories or research centers on the methodological aspects, and a partnership approach with industry for the development of innovative concepts. It works in natural synergy with the other units of the DTIS (Information processing and systems) on the Design and Optimization topic, and with the ONERA specialized departments for disciplinary issues.
Full Name: Office national d'études et de recherches aérospatiales
Acronym: ONERA
Share this institution
