Analysis of Pareto frontiers for multidisciplinary design optimization of aircraft

The goal of this work is the development of a methodology and a computational environment to enable a Pareto frontier analysis for the preliminary design optimization of a wing / horizontal tail / fuselage aircraft configuration. Integrated Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) is used to minimize a composite multi-objective function. A Pareto frontier in the 3-D objective space of weight (minimum), aerodynamic efficiency (maximum), and mission range (maximum) is constructed for the actual configuration of a regional aircraft. MDO techniques improve upon the obtained solution compared to classical sequential design, as they account for all interactions and influences between the disciplines under investigation. The multi-objective problem is solved by generating a set of Pareto optimal solutions that constitute a Pareto frontier. Three different formulations of the Weighed Global Criterion (WGC) method are used, and these functional formulations are analyzed and the concept of a Local Approximation Function is developed to build the Pareto frontier. The developed algorithm uses a commercial optimization code and a commercial finite element code to perform the required analyses. Finally, a criterion for selecting an ultimate design solution for the aircraft on the Pareto frontier is addressed.