Blended wing body (BWB) planform multidisciplinary optimisation (MDO) for early stage aircraft design using model based engineering

Date

2021-09-10

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Publisher

International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences

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Type

Conference paper

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Free to read from

Citation

Di Pasquale D, Verma D, Pagliuca G. (2021) Blended wing body (BWB) planform multidisciplinary optimisation (MDO) for early stage aircraft design using model based engineering. In: ICAS 2021: 32nd Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, 6-10 September 2021, Shanghai, China

Abstract

A model-based engineering (MBE) framework has been developed for Multi-Disciplinary Optimisation (MDO) of a Blended Wing Body (BWB) configuration during early design stages. Specifically, a planform optimisation has been performed by focusing on three objective functions, namely, aerodynamic efficiency (Eff), drag coefficient (CD) and Operational Empty Weight (OEW). Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) has been used as algorithm for the optimisation, an open-source Vortex Lattice Method (VLM), with empirical corrections for compressibility, as aerodynamic module, along with a mass estimation model with respect to BWB considerations. A successful multidisciplinary optimisation has been performed for the BWB-11 configuration flying at cruise condition, specifically at Mach 0.85 and at an altitude of 10 km. Increment in Eff and decrement in CD and OEW compared to the baseline BWB has been achieved. The OEW has been calculated from a newly developed mass estimation model and successfully validated via statistical methods. The paper presents a rapid MDO framework for efficient BWB planform optimisation to be used at the early design stage, providing useful guidance to the designers. A detailed analysis of the integrated design system, the methods as well as the optimisation results are provided. In addition, further research to the current framework is also presented.

Description

© The Author.

Software Description

Software Language

Github

Keywords

MDO, BWB, conceptual aircraft design, PSO, MBE

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© The Author.
Attribution 4.0 International

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