Advancements in Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Applied to Hypersonic Vehicles to Achieve Performance Closure

Abstract

To achieve closure on the physical and economic performance metrics of air-breathing hypersonic vehicles, their components and functions must be highly integrated. Such extensive integration challenges conventional design paradigms, approaches and tools. Unconventional approaches must therefore be developed and employed to achieve design success, among them parametric configuration definition, automated engineering and highfidelity discipline analysis, and multidisciplinary optimization, to name a few. These and other advanced design technologies are being developed and applied at Boeing to the design of hypersonic vehicles, as well as to other Boeing aerospace platforms. This paper describes recent Boeing progress in developing and applying the elements of a multidisciplinary analysis and optimization system to hypersonic vehicle design, and outlines future work aimed at further developing this critical capability.

Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Long or Short Range Hypersonic Aircraft

“…By calculating the gradient dh=dv of the spline curves, the control variables are produced by Eqs. (6) and (7) at each time instance.…”

“…The use of an MDO approach is of particular importance in the field of aircraft design because of the multidisciplinary and complex nature of aircraft (e.g., aerodynamics, structure, propulsion, trajectory, controls, cost and operations). The applications of MDO techniques have offered a great advantage in the conceptual design of unconventional aircraft, 1) space planes, 2,3) and hypersonic vehicles [4][5][6][7] because of the inadequateness of conventional rendering techniques for their design. The conceptual design of these vehicles pushes the limitations of current technologies.…”

“…Though trajectory optimization is applied, only the hypersonic condition is considered and the weight and propulsion analyses are neglected, which are both necessary for optimizing the aircraft configurations. Moreover, all these anal-Ó 2014 The Japan Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences yses are adapted in the research by Bowcutt et al, 6) but only the hypersonic condition is considered. In our previous work, 7) all flight speed regimes, subsonic to hypersonic, are considered, and the problem of the MDO method, in which simultaneous optimization of both configurations and trajectories of the hypersonic experimental vehicles occurs, is solved.…”

High-Pressure Capturing Wing Configurations

“…Among these, the so-called hypersonic airbreathers are considered a research hotspot. Recent interest in these vehicles has grown explosively, and various types of innovative vehicles, such as the X-51A, which is a combined U.S. Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program [1], the Boeing Flexible Aerospace System Solution for Tomorrow [2], and the Boeing Hypersonic Space and Global Transportation System [3] have been proposed and studied. Despite entering the age of hypersonic flight with the success of the X-43A [4] and the X-51A [1], scientists and engineers are conscious about the many unsolved problems that limit the practical application of air-breathers.…”

A Conceptual Design of Next Generation Hypersonic Air-breathing Airplanes with Dual Waveriders Forebody

“…Hypersonic vehicles could be used in many fields, such as high-speed strike weapons and reused carriers to access the space [2][3][4] . Hypersonic airplanes 5 that transport passengers and cargoes should also be one of the most important applications in future.…”