Application of a Distributed MDAO Framework to the Design of a Short- to Medium-Range Aircraft

Abstract

Advanced aircraft pre-design methodologies tend to involve an increasing amount of disciplines in a concurrent way. Previous research has advanced the capabilities of interlinking design tools and creating automated, multidisciplinary analysis and design workflows. A central challenge herein is found in the practical management of disciplinary knowledge. The main question that arises is: how to effectively set up the collaboration among engineers with different specialisations in order to operate the networked tools competently? In this context this paper presents an engineering framework enabling multidisciplinary analysis and optimisation and its application to the advanced pre-design of a short- to medium-ranged aircraft configuration. A system-of-systems approach is established by combining aircraft pre-design with system layout considerations, enforcing knowledge exchange between experts with different backgrounds. Still existing technical, as well as non-technical collaboration barriers are identified and described. It is concluded that although showing large potential for attaining improved design results, larger focus on organising effective collaboration among engineers is required to advance the multidisciplinary design approach to an even higher level.