Multi-Fidelity Multi-Strategy and Multi-Disciplinary Design Optimization Environment

Multidisciplinary design and optimization (MDO) tools developed to perform multi-disciplinary analysis based on low fidelity computation methods have been used in aircraft conceptual design for decades. These tools have been proven very effective for simple problems and mostly have been developed as a single codes. However, as analyses have become more complex and the need to consider more design factors crucial, such codes have grown so large as to be inconceivable and difficult to maintain. Nowadays, the design optimization process of a modern airplane must account for all failure modes and behavior constraints. In addition, it should cover manufacturing constraints and limitations on available resources, such as power, weight, and cost, simultaneously. This has to be done in an integrated way, so that the effects of any change in the design on all constraints and behavior measures are accurately modeled, and all interactions and trade-offs among design variables and disciplines are allowed to affect the design. ZONA Technology (ZONA) and its team member (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), hereinafter referred to as "the ZONA team", propose in Phase I to develop a multi-fidelity, multi-strategy and multi-disciplinary design optimization environment, called the M3 Design Optimization Environment (M3 DOE) that consists of a three-layer optimization strategy, a multi-fidelity aerodynamic discipline, and a finite element analysis including outer mold line morphing and topology re-meshing capability. The M3 DOE allows the designer to select an appropriate optimization strategy and an aerodynamic method with an appropriate fidelity to obtain an optimum design with desired accuracy within the allowable time constraint.