Multidisciplinary Optimization of an UAV Combining CFD and CSM

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Multidisciplinary Optimization of an UAV Combining CFD and CSM

Hitzel, S. M. / Nardin, L. / Sørensen, K. / Rieger, H.

Summary Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) is a challenging goal for designers. The aim is to use optimization strategies to integrate a number of different disciplines simultaneously in the optimization process. The optimum of the multidisciplinary problem is better than the design found by optimizing each discipline sequentially, since it can exploit the interactions between the disciplines. However, including all disciplines simultaneously significantly increases the complexity of the problem. At EADS Military Air Systems (EADS-MAS) the analysis of the multidisciplinary design optimization of an aircraft was carried out. While the whole aircraft has been optimized with regards to the aerodynamic part, structural concerns were taken into account for the wing alone. The whole process is not a real multidisciplinary optimization, because the structural part has not been integrated in a closed loop with the aerodynamic analysis. Instead, the structural code has been used to size the wing weight already optimized with regard to aerodynamic. The aim of this study was to prove that it was possible to eventually carry out such a multidisciplinary optimization with the available tools for future analyses.