Exploratory Aircraft Design with High-Fidelity Aerostructural Analysis and Optimization

Exploratory aircraft design optimization can assist in the discovery of novel fuel-efficient designs. This paper addresses some challenges faced by exploratory design by proposing a methodology for high-fidelity aerostructural... [ view full abstract ]

Exploratory aircraft design optimization can assist in the discovery of novel fuel-efficient designs. This paper addresses some challenges faced by exploratory design by proposing a methodology for high-fidelity aerostructural optimization with a flexible geometry parameterization. This work uses and extends a number of existing methodologies and software modules. This includes an integrated geometry parameterization and mesh movement algorithm, a finite-difference flow analysis software for the three-dimensional Euler equations, and a linear finite-element structural analysis that models the main load carrying members of a wingbox. Our choice of geometry parameterization maintains an analytical description of the design geometry and the corresponding flying shape throughout optimization. It also allows for automatic, robust, and efficient movement of the aerodynamic and structural meshes in response to optimization shape changes and structural deflections. This paper provides a somewhat high-level description of the geometry parameterization, the aerostructural analysis procedure, as well as the gradient calculation. To demonstrate the capabilities of the framework, an optimization case that has been allowed to explore a wide variety of nonplanar wing designs is included.