Rapid Optimization and Trade Space Framework for Adapting Aero-Structures

Adaptive aircraft have the potential for significantly expanded operational envelopes when compared to conventional fixed configuration aircraft. Optimization-based design of these vehicles necessitates the use of validated coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) tools that account for both aerodynamics and structural properties, which exhibit interdependence with aerodynamics. Traditional FSI tools require substantial computational resources to converge to a coupled solution, and overhead to support development of appropriate CAD geometry and CFD grids. These requirements scale considerably during optimization. Continuum Dynamics, Inc. (CDI), and the University of Michigan (UM) propose to develop an innovative FSI analysis capability that retains high accuracy at a fraction of the computational cost of traditional methods and is integrated in an optimization framework for rapid design and tradeoff assessment of adaptive aircraft. The capability will leverage CDI’s unique real-time free-wake and vortex lattice methods incorporated into CDI’s CHARM software to accurately characterize aircraft aerodynamics and aeroelastics, whilst drawing on UM’s extensive expertise in multidisciplinary design optimization methods and CDI’s experience in designing smart material based adaptive lifting surfaces (6 U.S. patents). A prototype of the capability will be developed in Phase I and integrated into an optimization framework to perform an application case study and trade space assessment.