Multidisciplinary design optimization for aircraft configurations

The aim of this paper is to present an MDO procedure and an associated overview of the work code called MAGIC, (Multidisciplinary Aircraft desiGn of Innovative Configurations), for conceptual design of aircraft configurations in civil aviation. The algorithms used in MAGIC for modeling structures, aerodynamics, and aeroelasticity are first-principles based, since for innovative configurations the designer cannot rely upon past experience. In addition, we emphasize the conceptual design: thus, the algorithms used must be accurate and efficient, so as to produce accurate predictions with a relatively small computational effort, In the paper presented the structural analysis (statics and dynamics) has been performed using an external commercial FEM code, Furthermore, a linear buckling analysis has been also included by mean the use of the same commercial code in order to consider as design constraint the potential instability arising by the wing elements compressed by the operative static load. The efficiency of the proposed methodology is illustrated by applications to specific configurations. Copyright © 2006 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.