Conceptual Aircraft Empennage Design Based on Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Approach

Abstract

Within a conventional aircraft design process, the horizontal tail and vertical tail are generally sized via volume coefficient methods. In this manuscript, an improved method for conceptual aircraft tail design based on multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) approach with stability and control constraints has been developed. To develop this method, first, the tail design requirements have been derived from the regulations and the fundamental functionalities of tail plans. Then, the empennage design is formulated as an MDO problem. Eventually the design optimization of horizontal and vertical tail is combined with the design optimization of the aircraft wing. A test case is presented for concurrent wing and tail plane design, which resulted in more than 9% reduction in aircraft block fuel weight and more than 3% reduction in aircraft maximal takeoff weight, which indicates a great potential for fuel burn and carbon reductions with empennage design optimization at conceptual aircraft design phase.

Modelling and Design Optimization of a Novel Wide‐Body Transport Aircraft to Improve the Structural Integrity

“…Ma and Elham [22] designed a novel TF confguration using a surrogated model and compared it with the conventional confguration yields to improve 20% fuel economy and 7% MTOW. Liu and Jiang [23] represent the design optimization of tail design to minimize the MTOW by 3.28% and provid insight into further reduction that can be achieved using boundary layer ingestion (BLI) and other active fow control (AFC) systems. Te aviation industry has made remarkable achievements in boosting the economy of today's aircraft, particularly in lowering the fuel consumption of aircraft engines.…”