A Certification-Driven Platform for Multidisciplinary Design Space Exploration in Airframe Early Preliminary Design

Abstract

Following the conceptual phase of aircraft design, sizing and performance estimations shift from historical-based empirical equations to physics-based simulations. The initial aircraft configuration is refined with a larger number of objectives and requirements, and certification regulations play a critical role in defining these. Analysis tools in the early phases of preliminary design have an important trade-off between accuracy, complexity, and computational efficiency. A number of analysis frameworks currently exist with varying levels of fidelity, multidisciplinary coupling, and limitations in the number of disciplines, degrees of freedom, and requirements they are able to implement. To enable efficient design space exploration (DSE), this paper proposes an integrated preliminary design framework that couples aerodynamics, structures, subsystems, aircraft performance, flight dynamics, and certification testing at varying levels of fidelity. This framework serves as a numerical testbed that can be used to explore the aircraft configuration and disciplinary design spaces, strength of disciplinary couplings, and propagate disciplinary uncertainties across the entire aircraft system. The framework is demonstrated using the horizontal tail of a large twin-aisle aircraft as a test case.

An MBSE Certification-Driven Design of a UAV MALE Configuration in the AGILE 4.0 Design Environment

“…A complete requirements model for a UAV MALE configuration is out of the scope of the AGILE 4.0 project. As defined by the application case owner Airbus Defence and Space, the focus of this application case is on the interaction between airframe sizing and on-board systems design; therefore, the requirements definition activity is limited to this area of interest 12 .…”

“…The CFD solver ADFlow is used for aerodynamics, whereas the structural modelling and analysis are carried out using the TACS software [11], a FEM solver specialized for thin-walled composite structures. The framework [12] developed by the Aircraft Systems Design Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in addition to the classical aero-structural sizing procedure, includes sub-system sizing and dynamic maneuvers constraints coming from Subpart B of the Certification Specification.…”

“…In this paper, AGILE 4.0 digital engineering technologies are leveraged for the OptiMALE aircraft, and the design workflow is assembled starting from the given set of requirements, the defined objectives of the study and the available disciplinary modules. Second, most of the preliminary design platforms focus on structural integrity requirements, and in literature, few works address disciplines beyond the aero-structural domain, notably the aforementioned [12].…”