Development of a Hypersonic Aircraft Design Optimization Tool

Abstract

The design and optimization of hypersonic aircraft is severely impacted by the high temperatures encountered during flight as they can lead to high thermal stresses and a significant reduction in material strength and stiffness. This reduction in rigidity of the structure requires innovative structural concepts and a stronger focus on aeroelastic deformations in the early design and optimisation of the aircraft structure. This imposes the need for a closer coupling of the aerodynamic and structural design tools than is current practice. The paper presents the development of a multi-disciplinary, closely coupled optimisation suite for hypersonic aircraft. An overview of the setup and structure of the optimization suite is given and the integration between the Tranair solver, used to determine the aerodynamic loads and temperatures, and MSC/NASTRAN, used for the structural sizing and design, will be given.