AIRCRAFT DESIGN EXPERIENCE

Some of the author's experiences of aircraft design are described in the present report, and it is hoped that they would be of some interest to the aircraft designers.

Implementation of a Sketch Based Approach to Conceptual Aircraft Design Synthesis and Modeling

In the context of applying computer aided design tools to aircraft conceptualdesign, a sketch based approach is proposed to help designers turn their original concepts intocomplex numerical models that are usable for further analysis and optimization. This approachemphasizes the integration of general configuration and the layout of such components as engines,payloads, fuel tanks and landing gears, and the representation of a design scheme as uniform planesketches and three dimensional models. This paper presents the measures adopted to implement theapproach in a prototype system, including the object-oriented data structure, friendly graphicaluser interfaces and basic features of relevant modules. Several examples generated in the prototypeand applications of the results are finally outlined to illustrate the effectiveness of theapproach.

Overall eVTOL aircraft design for urban air mobility

Electric vertical takeoff and landing(eVTOL)aircraft have emerged as a potential alternative to the existing transportation system,offering a transition from two-dimensional commuting and logistics to three-dimensional mobility.As a groundbreaking innovation in both the automotive and aviation sectors,eVTOL holds significant promise but also presents notable challenges.This paper aims to address the overall aircraft design(OAD)approach specifically tailored for eVTOL in the context of Urban Air Mobility(UAM).In contrast to traditional OAD methods,this study introduces and integrates disciplinary methodologies specifically catered to eVTOL aircraft design.A case study is conducted on a tilt-duct eVTOL aircraft with a typical UAM mission,and the disciplinary performance,including initial sizing,aerodynamics,electric propulsion systems,stability and control,weight,mission analysis and noise,is examined using the OAD methodologies.The findings demonstrate that the current approach effectively evaluates the fundamental aircraft-level performance of eVTOL,albeit further high-fidelity disciplinary analysis and optimization methods are required for future MDO-based eVTOL overall aircraft design.

A methodology for constructing the aircraft design schema

Aircraft collaboration design is based on a unified set of schemas containing data and model representations and interfaces across disciplines.The aircraft design schema is a central data model that specifies the paradigm for the representation of a full lifecycle model of aircraft design.The construction of the schema currently lacks theoretical guidance.This paper designs a novel methodology to construct the aircraft design schema,a fully functional,logical,and selfconsistent methodology.The methodology defines a schema matrix that includes implementation strategies,principles,processes,meta-object facility,views,scenarios,and products.The aircraft conceptual design schema is constructed according to the methodology,which is a hands-on approach to help understand the concept and implementation.The features of the methodology are analyzed,and the methodology and the aircraft conceptual design schema are presented to address the pain points of multiple solution trade-offs,multiple iterations,and multidisciplinary coupling in aircraft conceptual collaboration design.

Decomposition of Mathematical Programming Models for Aircraft Wing Design Facilitating the Use of Dynamic Programming Approach

Aircraft designers strive to achieve optimal weight-reliability tradeoffs while designing an aircraft. Since aircraft wing skins account for more than fifty percent of their structural weight, aircraft wings must be designed with utmost care and attention in terms of material types and thickness configurations. In particular, the selection of thickness at each location of the aircraft wing skin is the most consequential task for aircraft designers. To accomplish this, we present discrete mathematical programming models to obtain optimal thicknesses either to minimize weight or to maximize reliability. We present theoretical results for the decomposition of these discrete mathematical programming models to reduce computer memory requirements and facilitate the use of dynamic programming for design purposes. In particular, a decomposed version of the weight minimization problem is solved for an aircraft wing with thirty locations (or panels) and fourteen thickness choices for each location to yield an optimal minimum weight design.

Multi-objective optimization of aircraft design for emission and cost reductions

Pollutant gases emitted from the civil jet are doing more and more harm to the environ- ment with the rapid development of the global commercial aviation transport. Low environmental impact has become a new requirement for aircraft design. In this paper, estimation method for emis- sion in aircraft conceptual design stage is improved based on the International Civil Aviation Orga- nization （ICAO） aircraft engine emissions databank and the polynomial curve fitting methods. The greenhouse gas emission （CO2 equivalent） per seat per kilometer is proposed to measure the emis- sions. An approximate sensitive analysis and a multi-objective optimization of aircraft design for tradeoff between greenhouse effect and direct operating cost （DOC） are performed with five geom- etry variables of wing configuration and two flight operational parameters. The results indicate that reducing the cruise altitude and Mach number may result in a decrease of the greenhouse effect but an increase of DOC. And the two flight operational parameters have more effects on the emissions than the wing configuration. The Pareto-optimal front shows that a decrease of 29.8% in DOC is attained at the expense of an increase of 10.8% in greenhouse gases.

Environment of Design Requirements Input and Preliminary Sizing for Aircraft Conceptual Design

To supply a convenient and expandable tool to organize the designrequirements of a new aircraft and estimate its basic design parameters during conceptual design,the Environment of Design Requirements Input and Preliminary Sizing (EDRIPS) was developed. In thisenvironment, the performance requirements, mission profile and payloads could be inputted orselected respectively through user-friendly interfaces in a highly interactive way. Based on theserequirements, it enables the designer to pick up a design point in the solution space throughconstraint analysis, and then conduct mission analysis either step by step or via auto iteration byusing an improved method for estimating the takeoff weight. The implementation of each module andthe methods utilized are described. A design example is finally presented and analyzed to validatethe efficiency and reliability of applying EDRIPS to aircraft conceptual design.

DESIGN OBJECT MODEL AND DESIGN PROCESS MODEL OF COMPUTER AIDED AIRCRAFT CONCEPTUAL DESIGN SYSTEM

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The Influence of Demoiselle Aircraft on Light and General Aviation Design

In 1907, aviation pioneer Santos-Dumont had the idea of building a very light airplane. He designed and built the SD 19, the Demoiselle, an aircraft with a 6 meter wing span and a 24 HP engine of his own design. The Demoiselle was very successful in flying and, became very popular and its development continued as SD20, SD21 and SD22 （his last airplane）. The influence of the Demoiselle on design principles of light aircraft and general aviation were studied in this work, using statistical entropy, The designs number 20 and 22 may be considered dominant and influenced the design principles of light aircraft and general aviation.

Maturity assessment model for aircraft collaborative design software solution

In order to assure quality and control process in the development of the aircraft collaborative design software, a maturity assessment model is proposed. The requirements designing—house of quality is designed to evaluate the maturity degree of the solution, and the evaluation results can help to manage and control the development process. Furthermore, a fuzzy evaluation method based on the minimum deviation is proposed to deal with the fuzzy information. The quantitative evaluation result of the maturity degree can be calculated by optimizing the semantic discount factor aim for the minimum deviation. Finally, this model is illustrated and analyzed by an example study of the aircraft collaborative design software.

A New Method for Optimum Allocation of Design Requirements in Aircraft Conceptual Design

A new method, Collaborative Allocation （CA）, is proposed to solve the large-scale optimum allocation problem in aircraft conceptual design. According to the characteristics of optimum allocation in aircraft conceptual design. The principle and mathematical model of CA are established. The optimum allocation problem is decomposed into one main optimization problem and several sub-optimization problems. A group of design requirements for subsystems are provided by the main system respectively, and the subsystems execute their own optimizations or further provide the detailed design requirements to the bottom components of aircraft, such as spars, ribs and skins, etc. The subsystems minimize the discrepancy between their own local variables and the corresponding allocated values, and then return the optimization results to main optimization. The main optimization is performed to reallocate the design requirements for improving the integration performance and progressing toward the compatibilities among subsystems. CA provides the general optimum allocation architecture and is easy to be carried out. Furthermore, the concurrent computation can also be realized. Two examples of optimum reliability allocation are used to describe the implementation procedure of CA for two-level allocation and three-level allocation respectively, and to validate preliminarily its correctness and effectiveness. It is shown that the developed method can be successfully used in optimum allocation of design requirements. Then taking weight requirement allocation as example, the mathematical model and solution procedure for collaborative allocation of design requirements in aircraft conceptual design are briefly depicted.

Influential Factors in Safety Design of Aircraft Pneumatic Duct System

The reliability and safety of the pneumatic ducts are essential for flight safety.A beam element model of the duct system is developed and the factors that impact the stress performance of the duct system are investigated,such as stress check standards,flight acceleration,internal temperature and internal pressure.The results show that the stress synthetic method as the stress check standard can obtain the more safety design results.The maximum stress of straight pipe is affected significantly by the acceleration in a plane perpendicular to straight pipe,while the maximum stress of bend pipe is greatly affected by the acceleration in the direction perpendicular to plane of the bend pipe.Meanwhile,internal pressure has little effect on the maximum stress of bend pipe and straight pipe.Temperature has little effect on the maximum stress of bend pipe while has a big impact on the maximum stress of straight pipe.

Conceptual design and RCS performance research of shipborne early warning aircraft

In order to improve the survivability of the aircraft,conceptual design and radar cross section（RCS） performance research are done. The CATIA software is used to design the 3D digital model of the shipborne early warning aircraft, and some measures are taken to reduce the RCS characteristics of the early warning aircraft at the same time. Based on the physical optics method and the equivalent electromagnetic flow method,the aircraft＇s RCS characteristics and strength distribution characteristics are simulated numerically, and compared with the foreign advanced shipborne early warning aircraft. The simulation results show that under the X radar band, when the incident wave pitching angle is 0？, compared with the foreign advanced shipborne early warning aircraft, the forward RCS average value of the conceptual shipborne early warning aircraft is reduced to 24.49%, the lateral RCS average value is reduced to 5.04%, and the backward RCS average value is reduced to 39.26%. The research results of this paper are expected to provide theoretical basis and technical support for the conceptual design and the stealth design of the shipborne early warning aircraft.

Conceptual Design and Aerodynamic Study of Joined-Wing Business Jet Aircraft

The concept of joined-wing aircraft with nonplanar wings as conceived and patented by Wolkovitch is attractive due to various advantages such as light weight, high stiffness, low induced drag, high trimmed CLmax, reduced wetted area and parasite drag and good stability and control, which have been supported by independent analyses, design studies and wind tunnel tests. With such foreseen advantages, the present work is carried out to design joined-wing business-jet aircraft and study and investigate its advantages and benefits as compared to the current available conventional business jet of similar size, passenger and payload capacity. In particular, the work searches for a conceptual design of joined-wing configured business-jet aircraft that possesses more superior characteristics and better aerodynamic performance in terms of increased lift and reduced drag, and lighter than the conventional business jet of similar size. Another significant objective of this work is to prove that the added rigidity possessed by the joined wing configuration can contribute to weight reduction.

Research of low boom and low drag supersonic aircraft design

Sonic boom reduction will be an issue of utmost importance in future supersonic trans-port, due to strong regulations on acoustic nuisance. The paper describes a new multi-objective optimization method for supersonic aircraft design. The method is developed by coupling Seebass-George-Darden （SGD） inverse design method and multi-objective genetic algorithm. Based on the method, different codes are developed. Using a computational architecture, a concep-tual supersonic aircraft design environment （CSADE） is constructed. The architecture of CSADE includes inner optimization level and out optimization level. The low boom configuration is gener-ated in inner optimization level by matching the target equivalent area distribution and actual equivalent area distribution. And low boom/low drag configuration is generated in outer optimiza-tion level by using NSGA-II multi-objective genetic algorithm to optimize the control parameters of SGD method and aircraft shape. Two objective functions, low sonic boom and low wave drag, are considered in CSADE. Physically reasonable Pareto solutions are obtained from the present optimization. Some supersonic aircraft configurations are selected from Pareto front and the optimization results indicate that the swept forward wing configuration has benefits in both sonic boom reduction and wave drag reduction. The results are validated by using computational fluid dynamics （CFD） analysis.

A Dynamic Programming Approach to the Design of Composite Aircraft Wings

A light and reliable aircraft has been the major goal of aircraft designers. It is imperative to design the aircraft wing skins as efficiently as possible since the wing skins comprise more than fifty percent of the structural weight of the aircraft wing. The aircraft wing skin consists of many different types of material and thickness configurations at various locations. Selecting a thickness for each location is perhaps the most significant design task. In this paper, we formulate discrete mathematical programming models to determine the optimal thicknesses for three different criteria: maximize reliability, minimize weight, and achieve a trade-off between maximizing reliability and minimizing weight. These three model formulations are generalized discrete resource-allocation problems, which lend themselves well to the dynamic programming approach. Consequently, we use the dynamic programming method to solve these model formulations. To illustrate our approach, an example is solved in which dynamic programming yields a minimum weight design as well as a trade-off curve for weight versus reliability for an aircraft wing with thirty locations (or panels) and fourteen thickness choices for each location.

Application of Fuzzy QFD to Aircraft Top Hierarchy Design

In this paper, based on the Quality Function Deployment ( QFD) method, theFuzzy Quality Function Deployment (FQFD) theory and the step-by-step hierarchy structure in aircrafttop decision design are studied. The fuzzy model for computing competitive factor in evaluation ispresented. The decision of key technologies for improving the performance and affordability of afixed-wing aircraft is studied using the model, and the result proves the feasibility of this model.

REQUIREMENTS AND DESIGN METHOD FOR MATCHING AIRCRAFT GUNS WITH THEIR SUPPORTING STRUCTURE

In aircraft structural dynamic design the matching of guns with their supporting structure is one of the most important tasks on which hinges the success or failure of the structural design. The design curves for matching guns with their supporting structure can be obtained from response calculations of the plate-spring system supporting the gun on the ground,the model structure tested on the ground and the actual structure.A set of matching curves is given for engineering application.Then,the matching design can be accomplished by means of impact load spectrograms so as to perform an optimal structural design and to make further improvements on dynamic design program.

METHOD FOR ESTIMATING GEOMETIC CHARACTERISTICS OF NUMERICAL CONCEPTUAL AIRCRAFT MODELS BASED ON SURFACE ELEMENTS

To estimate the geometric characteristics, especially wet areas and section areas, of three dimensional numerical conceptual aircraft models, a method based on surface elements is proposed. On the premise that numerous surface elements are generated to represent each component surface, a component wet area of the surface is estimated by adding up the areas of such elements that are not covered by any other component surfaces. The elements are also used to get the section polygons of such composite surfaces as the whole aircraft at a given body station, then a section area is approximated with the sum of trapezoidal areas between such sides of polygons that are not covered by any other component and a reference axis. Practical application to a computer aided aircraft conceptual design system shows that the methed is applicable to different kinds of conceptual aircraft models and its precision is satisfying to the conceptual design.

APPLICATION OF HYBRID GENETIC ALGORITHM IN AEROELASTIC MULTIDISCIPLINARY DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF LARGE AIRCRAFT

The genetic/gradient-based hybrid algorithm is introduced and used in the design studies of aeroelastic optimization of large aircraft wings to attain skin distribution,stiffness distribution and design sensitivity.The program of genetic algorithm is developed by the authors while the gradient-based algorithm borrows from the modified method for feasible direction in MSC/NASTRAN software.In the hybrid algorithm,the genetic algorithm is used to perform global search to avoid to fall into local optima,and then the excellent individuals of every generation optimized by the genetic algorithm are further fine-tuned by the modified method for feasible direction to attain the local optima and hence to get global optima.Moreover,the application effects of hybrid genetic algorithm in aeroelastic multidisciplinary design optimization of large aircraft wing are discussed,which satisfy multiple constraints of strength,displacement,aileron efficiency,and flutter speed.The application results show that the genetic/gradient-based hybrid algorithm is available for aeroelastic optimization of large aircraft wings in initial design phase as well as detailed design phase,and the optimization results are very consistent.Therefore,the design modifications can be decreased using the genetic/gradient-based hybrid algorithm.