Rapid Design Generation and Multifidelity Analysis of Aircraft Structures

Abstract There is a huge demand for automation in geometry creation within aerospace industry for multidisciplinary design optimization. Currently, every model is being built independently for each discipline. Thus, any changes in design parameters require updates on all of the models, which is inefficient, time-consuming and prone to deficiencies. A parametric software called ‘Engineering Sketch Pad’ (ESP) is used to resolve this issue. It provides the user with the ability to generate new design concepts through modifying a text file. Another highly demanded feature is data transfer between different fidelity models automatically. The need to transfer loads and/or deformations data from one model to another in order to perform the multi-fidelity analysis. In this project, the load is transferred from the stick model to ribs of the wing to perform static optimization and deformation data from ribs and spars is transferred to stiffened panels to perform buckling optimization. This paper focuses on a novel concept of single click weight optimization of aircraft structural parts and components using a parametric design modeler (i.e., ESP) and the analysis solver (i.e., Nastran). The interface code has been done via a C-program.