Multidisciplinary design optimization of novel and flexible aircraft configurations: design, build, test and fly [MIDAS]

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Air transport policies and operators, and aircraft manufacturers are demanding safer and greener air transportation systems as well as reduced development and operating costs, the latter by 20% and 50% in the short and long term, respectively, which has resulted in a need for a paradigm shift in aircraft design. To this end, the adoption of novel configurations, lighter composites to increase payload, energy efficient propulsion systems, and morphing control surfaces to reduce drag have received considerable attention in the research community for the past five years. An interesting mid-term solution is the increase of wing aspect-ratio to reduce the aerodynamic induced drag and thus decrease fuel consumption and pollutant emissions. However, by designing more slender wings, the wing structure becomes more flexible and prone to higher deflections under the same operation conditions. This effect may lead to changes in aeroservoelastic performance, which may lead to dynamic instabilities. Hence the importance of taking into account geometric nonlinearities in the design of high aspect-ratio wings. Over the long term, novel configurations such as the blended-wing-body and joined-wing configurations present promising solutions to replace the current conventional designs. In this project, a two-pronged approach is proposed to study a number of facets in advanced aircraft design: (i) new multidisciplinary design optimization methodologies to analyze and experimentally evaluate and validate novel blended-wing-body configurations for operation in the transonic range for business jets, and (ii) the aeroservoelastic performance evaluation of flexible and nonlinear high aspect-ratio wings for regional transport aircraft.