Composite Flying-wing Design

A composite flying-wing, named mAEWing2 (the second mini aeroelastic wing) was designed through MDAO for the NASA PAAW project. The wing was fabricated and tested in both GVT and flight. A recent video about the aicraft flight test is shown in the right window. The relevant paper is:

Zhao, W., Jrad, M., Gupta, R. and Kapania, R. K., "Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis and Optimization of Performance Adaptive Aeroelastic Wings,'' AIAA Atmosphere Flight Mechanics Conference, AIAA SciTech 2017, Grapevine, TX, Jan, 2017, AIAA 2017-1392

Zhao, W., Gupta, A., Miglani, J., Regan, C. D., Kapania, R. K. and Seiler, P. J., "Component Data Assisted Finite Element Model Updating of Composite Flying-wing Aircraft using Multi-level Optimization,'' Aerospace Science and Technology, 2019, [Link]

Large Transport Wing

Structure Modeling

  • Composite beam model for D8 wingbox design

  • six degrees-of-freedom considered

  • Cross-sectional analysis based stiffness/mass properties for beam modeling

(Credit Aurora/MIT D8 - Double bubble narrowbody airplane)

Equivalent beam model of D8 airplane wing

Fully-coupled aeroelastic analysis: trim analysis and flutter analysis:

  1. Composite beam model

  2. Panel method based aerodynamics corrected with the high-fidelity aerodynamic analysis results

  3. Direct computation of static aeroelastic analysis equations (see details in DOI: 10.2514/6.2020-0663)

D8_FSI.pdf

(Credit: PAAW team)

Bilevel Programming Optimization

    • SDOLab has developed a program for large airplane design, Bi-Level Integrated Design Optimization (BLIDO)

      • Optimizer:

        • Particle Swarm Optimization (upper-level optimization)

        • Gradient based optimization (lower-level optimization

      • Bionic Structures

        • Spars, ribs, stringers shape

        • Tow-steered laminates, i.e. curvilinear fiber path laminates

    • Ongoing Research Topics:

      • Rapid estimation of using high fidelity analysis results for BLIDO

Relevant Papers

Zhao, W., Gupta, R.,Kapania, R. K. and Schmidt, D. K., “Fuel Weight Minimization for Large N+3 Composite Transports with Multiple Control Surfaces,” AIAA SciTech 2020, Orlando, FL, 2020, AIAA 2020-0663, DOI: 10.2514/6.2020-0663

Zhao, W. and Kapania, R. K., “Actuator Energy and Drag Minimizations of Blended-Wing-Body with Variable Camber Continuous Trailing-edge Flaps,” Engineering Optimization, Vol. 52, No. 9, pp. 1561-1587, 2020, DOI: 10.1080/0305215X.2019.1660776

Zhao, W. and Kapania, R. K., “Bilevel Programming Weight Minimization of Composite Flying-wings Aircraft with Curvilinear Spars and Ribs,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 57, No. 6, pp. 2594–2608, 2019, DOI:10.2514/1.J057892

Gupta, R., Zhao, W. and Kapania, R. K., “Investigation of Controllability Gramian as Control Objective in MDAO Framework,” AIAA Aviation 2019, Dallas, Texas, June, 2019, AIAA 2019-3550, DOI:10.2514/6.2019-3550

Zhao, W. and Kapania, R. K., “Multiobjective Optimization of Composite Flying-wings with SpaRibs and Multiple Control Surfaces,” 2018 Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference, 2018 AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition, 2018, Atlanta, Georgia, AIAA 2018-3434, DOI: 10.2514/6.2018-3424

Zhao, W. and Kapania, R. K., “BLP Optimization of Composite Flying-wing with SpaRibs and Multiple Control Surfaces,” 2018 AIAA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, AIAA SciTech Forum, Kissimmee, Florida, AIAA 2018-2150, 2018, DOI: 10.2514/1.J057892

Zhao, W. and Kapania, R. K., “Static Aeroelastic Optimization of Aircraft Wings with Multiple Surfaces,” 18th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference, AIAA Aviation Forum, Denver, Colorado, 2017, AIAA 2017-4320, DOI: 10.2514/6.2017-4320

Zhao, W., Jrad, M., Gupta, R. and Kapania, R. K., “Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis and Optimization of Performance Adaptive Aeroelastic Wings,” AIAA Atmosphere Flight Mechanics Conference, AIAA SciTech, Grapevine, TX, 2017, AIAA 2017-1392, DOI: 10.2514/6.2017-1392 (This work on mAEWing2 design has been reported in AIAA Aerospace America 2017 Year in Review)