Abstract
Novel technologies have the potential to significantly improve aircraft energy efficiency via closer integration of propulsion, airframe and operations. The vehicles that incorporate these tightly coupled subsystems and innovative architectures require advanced design and evaluation tools. We extended our previously-proposed multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization (MDAO) framework to include new subsystem and performance models to accurately represent and determine the interactions between subsystems and the tradeoffs that drive design choices and system-level optimization. This framework is built on OpenMDAO and Aviary for modular gradient-based optimization with efficient coupled derivatives, allowing for the rapid evaluation of a wide design space. The subsystems represented include thermal engines, propulsors, electric machines, power electronics, thermal management, and batteries. Different levels of fidelity are available to add flexibility. Aircraft represented in this framework can be evaluated with conventional metrics such as fuel burn and energy consumption as well as more advanced metrics such as noise, emissions, contrail formation potential, and cost thanks to the addition of specialized models. With these performance metrics, the framework provides a more comprehensive evaluation of potential designs. The use of this framework is demonstrated for small single-aisle aircraft of different propulsion architectures. The framework will be made open source for the benefit of the wider aircraft design community.
Maxfield Arnson
PhD Student and Graduate Research Assistant
Maxfield Arnson is a graduate student research assistant in the IDEAS Lab at the University of Michigan.
Triết Hồ
PhD student and Graduate Research Assistant
Triet is a PhD student in the Aerospace Engineering department at the University of Michigan.
