Application of Aerodynamic Optimization in a Multi-fidelity Distributed Overall Aircraft Design System

Abstract

This paper presents a multi-fidelity distributed aircraft design process using fully automated Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis and optimization aiming to provide better prediction of aircraft characteristics in the early aircraft design stages for both conventional and unconventional aircraft configurations. Gradient based optimization algorithm in conjunction with adjoint sensitive analysis method is employed to tackle the more detailed shape arising with the increasing fidelity of the aerodynamic analysis tool. The design process is applied to a short-range transport aircraft. The design synthesis is applied to the original and redesigned configuration and the comparison of the synthesised aircraft characteristics highlight the effect of the shape design in the aircraft design process.