Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation of an Aircraft Wing by Applying a Hybrid Optimisation Strategy

Abstract

In this contribution the application of a hybrid optimisation strategy to multidisciplinary design problem of an aircraft wing is studied. The conceptual design process of a regional transport aircraft was selected for exercising multidisciplinary optimisation by a GARTEUR Action Group. Four different win designs were investigated to allow a discrete variation of the primary wing design variable, the aspect ratio (AR). For this type of wing design lift efficiency, roll rate and divergence speed are important aeroelastic design requirements. The applied hybrid strategy consists of three locally convergent optimisation algorithms being part of the MBB-LAGRANGE. To enable hybrid optimisation using MBB- LAGRANGE, it was integrated with the software system OpTiX allowing the specification and execution of a hybrid strategy on a network of workstations. The most interesting result of the multidisciplinary optimisation run including strength, aeroelastic and flutter design requirements for each aspect ratio is the wing weight. The impact of this optimised wing weight on direct operating costs as a function of aspect ratio is demonstrated.