Development of a Java-Based Framework for Aircraft Preliminary Design and Optimization

The paper deals with the description of a software tool to be used for aircraft preliminary design and optimization. The software tool, called ADOpT (Aircraft Design and Optimization Tool) has been developed in order to have a fast, reliable and user friendly framework to be used in preliminary/conceptual design phase. The software platform is made to perform fast multi-disciplinary analysis of an established aircraft configuration and search for an optimized configuration in a domain whose boundaries are defined by the user. The software has been conceived to be used in an industrial environment across conceptual and preliminary design phases. The software is still in development at the Department of Industrial Engineering of University of Naples

Multi-disciplinary analysis and optimization Java tool for aircraft design

The first stages of the aircraft design process require to carry out multi-disciplinary analyses as fast as possible, and with a certain grade of accuracy. During the conceptual and the preliminary phases, the goal is to search for the design that best fulfils the requirements. This work presents a Java framework, named JPAD, developed at the University of Naples Federico II by the Design of Aircraft and Flight technologies research group (DAF) to perform multi-disciplinary analysis and optimization of transport aircraft. This paper describes all the JPAD capabilities, focusing on the sensitivity analyses and optimization modules. At the end, a case study concerning the optimization of a regional turboprop aircraft model similar to the well-known ATR72 will be presented

TiGL - An Open Source Computational Geometry Library for Parametric Aircraft Design

This paper introduces the software TiGL: TiGL is an open source high-fidelity geometry modeler that is used in the conceptual and preliminary aircraft and helicopter design phase. It creates full three-dimensional models of aircraft from their parametric CPACS description. Due to its parametric nature, it is typically used for aircraft design analysis and optimization. First, we present the use-case and architecture of TiGL. Then, we discuss it's geometry module, which is used to generate the B-spline based surfaces of the aircraft. The backbone of TiGL is its surface generator for curve network interpolation, based on Gordon surfaces. One major part of this paper explains the mathematical foundation of Gordon surfaces on B-splines and how we achieve the required curve network compatibility. Finally, TiGL's aircraft component module is introduced, which is used to create the external and internal parts of aircraft, such as wings, flaps, fuselages, engines or structural elements

The GENUS aircraft conceptual design environment

The design of aircraft has evolved over time from the classical design approach to the more modern computer-based design method utilizing multivariate design optimization. In recent years, aircraft concepts and configurations have become more diverse and complex thus pushing many synthesis packages beyond their capability. Furthermore, many examples of aircraft design software focus on the analysis of one particular concept thus requiring separate packages for each concept. This can lead to complications in comparing concepts and configurations as differences in performance may originate from different prediction toolsets being used. This paper presents the GENUS Aircraft Design Framework developed by Cranfield University’s Aircraft Design Group to address these issues. The paper reviews available aircraft design methodologies and describes the challenges faced in their development and application. Following this, the GENUS aircraft design environment is introduced, along with the theoretical background and practical reasoning behind the program architecture. Particular attention is given to the programming, choice of methodology, and optimization techniques involved. Subsequently, some applications of the developed methodology, implemented in the framework are presented to illustrate the diversity of the approach. Three special classes of aircraft design concept are presented briefly

Noise, emissions and costs trade factors for regional jet platforms using a new software for aircraft preliminary design

A multidisciplinary analysis approach plays a very important role in the development of future transport aircraft, being able to interconnect all aircraft-related subjects and suppliers. A major issue, which has prevented aircraft manufacturers from implementing efficient and cost-effective design processes, is the loose integration of engine models into iterative aircraft design workflows. The continuous improvement of computer calculation capabilities over years has allowed the growth of a large family of software dedicated to aircraft preliminary design activities concerning also multi-disciplinary analyses, and optimizations. In this context, a new software for aircraft preliminary design, multi-disciplinary analyses and optimizations named JPAD (Java toolchain of Programs for Aircraft Design) has been developed at the University of Naples Federico II. The main purpose of this paper is to show the capabilities of the JPAD software applied to typical preliminary design problems. Thus, results of the activities carried out by means of JPAD in the scope of the Work Package 2 (WP2) of the European CleanSky2 project ADORNO will be shown. Those will concern trade factors and response surfaces related to environmental noise, DOC, and pollutant emissions (linked to the design mission block fuel) for a Rear-Mounted engines (RM) reference 2014 aircraft configuration

Advanced turboprop multidisciplinary design and optimization within agile project

The present paper deals with the design, analysis and optimization of a 90 passengers turboprop aircraft with a design range of 1200 nautical miles and a cruise Mach number equal to 0.56. The prescribed aircraft is one of the use cases of the AGILE European project, aiming to provide a 3rd generation of multidisciplinary design and optimization chain, following the collaborative and remote aircraft design paradigm, through an heterogenous team of experts. The multidisciplinary aircraft design analysis is set-up involving tools provided by AGILE partners distributed worldwide and run locally from partners side. A complete design of experiment, focused on wing planform variables, is performed to build response surfaces suitable for optimization purposes. The goal of the optimization is the direct operating cost, subject to wing design variables and top-level aircraft requirements

Model based collaborative design & optimization of blended wing body aircraft configuration: AGILE EU project

Novel configuration design choices may help achieve revolutionary goals for reducing fuel burn, emission and noise, set by Flightpath 2050. One such advance configuration is a blended wing body. Due to multi-diciplinary nature of the configuration, several partners with disciplinary expertise collaborate in a Model driven ‘AGILE MDAO framework’ to design and evaluate the novel configuration. The objective of this research are : - To create and test a model based collaborative framework using AGILE Paradigm for novel configuration design & optimization, involving large multinational team. Reduce setup time for complex MDO problem. - Through Multi fidelity design space exploration, evaluate aerodynamic performance - The BWB disciplinary analysis models such as aerodynamics, propulsion, onboard systems, S&C were integrated and intermediate results are published in this report

A simulation-based performance analysis tool for aircraft design workflows

A simulation-based approach for take-off and landing performance assessments is presented in this work. In the context of aircraft design loops, it provides a detailed and flexible formulation that can be integrated into a wider simulation methodology for a complete commercial aviation mission. As a matter of fact, conceptual and preliminary aircraft design activities require iterative calculations to quickly make performance predictions on a set of possible airplane configurations. The goal is to search for a design that best fits all top level aircraft requirements among the results of a great number of multi-disciplinary analyses, as fast as possible, and with a certain grade of accuracy. Usually, such a task is carried out using statistical or semi-empirical approaches which can give pretty accurate results in no time. However, those prediction methods may be inappropriate when dealing with innovative aircraft configurations or whenever a higher level of accuracy is necessary. Simulation-based design has become crucial to make the overall process affordable and effective in cases where higher fidelity analyses are required. A common example when flight simulations can be effectively used to support a design loop is given by aircraft mission analyses and performance predictions. These usually include take-off, climb, en route, loiter, approach, and landing simulations. This article introduces the mathematical models of aircraft take-off and landing and gives the details of how they are implemented in the software library JPAD. These features are not present in most of the currently available pieces of preliminary aircraft design software and allow one to perform high fidelity, simulation-based take-off and landing analyses within design iterations. Although much more detailed than classical semi-empirical approaches, the presented methodologies require very limited computational effort. An application of the proposed formulations is introduced in the second part of the article. The example considers the Airbus A220-300 as a reference aircraft model and includes complete take-off and landing performance studies, as well as the simulation of both take-off and landing certification noise trajectories

Java framework for parametric aircraft design - Ground performance

This paper aims to introduce the take-off and landing performance analysis modules of the software library named Java toolchain of Programs for Aircraft Design (JPAD), dedicated to the aircraft preliminary design. An overview of JPAD is also presented. Design/methodology/approach: The calculation of the take-off and landing distances has been implemented using a simulation-based approach. This expects to solve an appropriate set of ordinary differential equations, which describes the aircraft equations of motion during all the take-off and landing phases. Tests upon two aircraft models (ATR72 and B747-100B) have been performed to compare the obtained output with the performance data retrieved from the related flight manuals. Findings: The tool developed has proven to be very reliable and versatile, as it performs the calculation of the required performance with almost no computational effort and with a good accuracy, providing a less than the 5 per cent difference with respect to the statistical trend and a difference from the flight manual or public brochure data around 10 per cent. Originality/value: The use of a simulation-based approach to have a more accurate estimation of the ground performance with respect to classic semi-empirical equations. Although performing the simulation of the aircraft motion, the approach shown is very time-saving and can be easily implemented in an optimization cycle