Development of a physics-based design framework for aircraft design using parametric modeling

Abstract

Handling constantly evolving configurations of aircraft can be inefficient and frustrating to design engineers, especially true in the early design phase when many design parameters are changeable throughout trade-off studies. In this paper, a physics-based design framework using parametric modeling is introduced, which is designated as DIAMOND/AIRCRAFT and developed for structural design of transport aircraft in the conceptual and preliminary design phase. DIAMOND/AIRCRAFT can relieve the burden of labor-intensive and time-consuming configuration changes with powerful parametric modeling techniques that can manipulate ever-changing geometric parameters for external layout of design alternatives. Furthermore, the design framework is capable of generating FE model in an automated fashion based on the internal structural layout, basically a set of design parameters describing the structural members in terms of their physical properties such as location, spacing and quantities. The design framework performs structural sizing using the FE model including both primary and secondary structural levels. This physics-based approach improves the accuracy of weight estimation significantly as compared with empirical methods. In this study, combining a physics-based model with parameter modeling techniques delivers a high-fidelity design framework, remarkably expediting otherwise slow and tedious design process of the early design phase.