Case Study: DCNS (French naval defense company) achieves 18× faster simulations and validated SAMAHE helicopter handling with MathWorks (MATLAB & Simulink)

DCNS Models and Simulates SAMAHE Helicopter Handling System

DCNS, a French naval defense company, needed to accelerate development and qualification of its SAMAHE® helicopter handling system while reducing costly and hazardous at-sea tests. Working with MathWorks, DCNS sought to model complex ship, helicopter (including specialized tire behavior), and environmental dynamics to run hundreds of scenarios that would be impractical or unsafe to test in real life using products such as Simulink and Simscape Multibody.

MathWorks support and tools enabled DCNS to build the SiMAéro simulator in Simulink/Simscape Multibody and to parallelize runs with Parallel Computing Toolbox and MATLAB Distributed Computing Server on a 20-core cluster. The effort produced more than 1,200 simulations, verified system stability across wide conditions, cut simulation batch time by a factor of 18, reduced at-sea testing and qualification time, and included knowledge transfer so DCNS can continue development independently.

DCNS

Jérôme Vouillat

Simulation Engineer