Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of a Regional Aircraft Wing Box

Abstract

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) tech- niques were successfully applied in sizing the wing boxes of the newly developed Fairchild Dornier re- gional jet family. A common finite element model for the whole aircraft was used for the static and aero- elastic optimization and analysis purposes. A detailed design model in the order of thousands of design variables was constructed. All relevant sizing re- quirements for structural strength, aeroelastic behav- ior and manufacturing, resulting in over 800,000 con- straints, were applied under all loading conditions. Many auxiliary tools for automating the process of preparing the huge amount of required input data, as well as the rapid assessment of results, were devel- oped. Most of these tools were developed in close coordination with the MSC Software GmbH, since the MDO implementation process is centered around the optimization procedure in MSC.Nastran SOL 200. A new MSC.Nastran feature called External Server was utilized to integrate company specific wing buck- ling constraints into the Nastran optimization loop. An independent and comprehensive analysis of the con- ceived wing box's structural sizes confirmed the va- lidity of the results.