SARAH project

SARAH (Increased Safety & Robust Certification for ditching of Aircraft & Helicopters) is a Horizon 2020 collaborative project, aiming at establishing novel holistic, simulation-based approaches to the analysis of aircraft and helicopter ditching. The project is coordinated by IBK-Innovation and its consortium. Results of SARAH are expected to support the trustworthiness of aviation services.


The main expected outcomes of the project are:
  • more robust and reliable solutions for aircrafts and helicopters, based on a novel methodology and technologies;
  • an improved understanding of environmental phenomena as well as solutions to protect the aircraft/helicopter by analysing wave effects, ground effects and handling qualities;
in order to increase the safety of aircrafts and helicopters in ditching/ floatation situations.
 

The project is organised around several work packages:

  • WP2 improving understanding of ditching,
  • WP3 environmental conditions,
  • WP4 design for ditching,
  • WP5 validation test,
  • WP6 industrial exploitation.
The project combines three investigation methods:
  • ditching tests,
  • numerical simulation of ditching,
  • ditching accident analysis.

LHEEA's involvement in the SARAH project: See the video

 


Within SARAH, Centrale Nantes, with the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energy and Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA), in collaboration with CNR-INSEAN, NextFlow Software and HydrOcean will further develop and validate the high fidelity software SPH-Flow.  In particular, it consists in adapting the software's (generic) coupling interface with an FEM solver to ditching purposes. Additional work is dedicated to the optimisation of the SPH-solver performance.

In addition, Centrale Nantes has a large task within the work package WP5 dedicated towards building datasets for the validation of the physical models and of the computational tools developed in the other WPs.  The LHEEA is in charge of the test campaign focused on helicopters. It will be carried out at the LHEEA’s Ocean Tank (50 m x 30 m x 5 m and equipped with 48 independent wave generator paddles). Hence, the laboratory teams will be responsible for the design, preparation and execution of the related tests. The aim will be to achieve experimental conditions which, besides being useful for validation purposes, are as representative as possible of the actual ditching scenarios. 
The SARAH project began in October 2016 and will conclude its activities, having a lifespan of three years, in September 2019. The total budget of the project is approximately €6.6M, funded by the European Commission under H2020-EU.3.4. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport (Grant Agreement number 724139).
Published on July 4, 2017 Updated on October 18, 2022