Flexible Fight Dynamics and Control-Enhanced Aircraft Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

As modern airframe designs become increasingly lightweight with high aspect-ratio wings, aeroservoelastic effects gain prominence in modeling and design considerations. Consequently, aircraft design processes, control design methodologies, and ground/flight-testing procedures need to appropriately trade between passive and actively-controlled structures. Furthermore, the influence of the flight control system on the optimal structural and aerodynamic design needs to be captured in the design process. To address these needs, Systems Technology Inc., in collaboration with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and D.K. Schmidt and Associates, propose to develop a novel control-oriented aircraft Multidisciplinary Analysis amp; Optimization (MDAO) process and software design tool. This will be achieved by implementing a flight dynamics-oriented model into the MDAO process that can readily provide information about the dynamic behavior (e.g., controllability and observability, bandwidths, modal impulse residues, etc.). This control-oriented information will be used to define performance criteria that will be optimized as part of the MDAO process, thereby resulting in an aircraft that is not only structurally and aerodynamically optimized, but also flight-control optimized. This approach will result in significant cost reduction by avoiding expensive subsequent modifications in both hardware and software to ensure safe, robust behavior.