01.1 - Aircraft Design and Integrated System (Basics and Theory)
LARGE-SCALE MULTIFIDELITY AEROSTRUCTURAL OPTIMIZATION OF A TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT
N. Wu¹, C.A. Mader¹, J.R.R.A. Martins¹; ¹University of Michigan, United States
Aided by the adjoint method, high-fidelity aerostructural aircraft optimizations have become more widespread in recent years. However, they are still computationally expensive and suffer from optimization convergence issues. In this work, we address some practical issues with large-scale aerostructural optimizations using a multifidelity approach together with a different geometric parameterization. We perform an optimization of a notional transport aircraft analyzed over ten flight conditions, including close to 1000 design variables and 1000 constraints. We compare the result against a reference single-fidelity optimization, and show simultaneous computational cost reduction and an improved level of optimization convergence.