Application of Optimisation Algorithms to Aircraft Aerodynamics

Abstract

Reduced operating costs and low environmental impact are required to modern commercial aircraft. The today airplanes are so optimized that a significant increase in performances can hardly be achieved and new configurations are now of interest, supposing to allow a jump forward in drag reduction. In the present work, optimization algorithms are applied to search new aircraft configurations able to satisfy different constraints. The algorithms are first applied to benchmarking problems in order to test their performances and evaluate the computational time. The same algorithms are applied to classical problems of aerodynamics like the optimum wings. At the end, the problem of trim and stability of flight are tackled; we look for wing planforms which satisfy a set of constraints defining the feasible region both in cruise condition and in low speed condition (i.e. when high lift devices are deployed). Finally, a new ultralight optimised aircraft is presented as an example of application.