AEROCHINA is a 12 month project co-funded by the 6th Framework Programme of the European Community and by the Ministry of Science and Technology in China (MOST). It is managed by the European Commission and forms part of the Competitive and Sustainable Growth (GROWTH) Programme as a Specific Support Action (SSA).

Numerous solvers, modelling, design optimisation and experimental tools have been developed and used until recently both in Europe (mainly though EC funded projects) and in China and have proven to be of significant value in many industrial applications, when not treating explicitly the coupling due to the multidisciplinary effects. So far, the correct use of such single discipline codes is limited to specific range of applications. Despite recent efforts, there is still a lack of initial information on available methods, codes and experiments related to coupled multidisciplinary problems in aeronautics in Europe and China, involving two or more different fields (such as fluid/structure, fluid/acoustics, fluid/heat transfer, structure/acoustics, pollution flows, composite materials, etc.).

The aim of the AEROCHINA SSA is to identify and implement future collaboration between Europe and China for the solution of multidisciplinary design problems in aeronautics. This will be achieved by prospective studies aiming to collect, to store and to disseminate, on an individually or group basis, the existing knowledge in Europe and China in the field of multiphysics modelling, simulation, experimentation and design in aeronautics. As mentioned above one of the key objectives is to identify RTD areas of mutual interest in the field.

The coupled disciplines to be considered include fluids, structures, chemistry and thermal flows with applications in aeroelasticity (flutter and fatigue), aero/vibroacoustics (noise), aeroheating (anti-icing), combustion (pollution) and turbulence (noise), among others. New experiments and modern diagnostics measurement techniques will be prospected and identified for future rigorous multi-disciplinary validation purposes.