Influence of weight modelling on the outcome of wing design using multidisciplinary design optimisation techniques

Abstract

Weight estimation methods are categorised in different classes based on their level of fidelity. The lower class methods are based on statistical data, while higher class methods use physics based calculations. Statistical weight estimation methods are usually utilised in early design stages when the knowledge of designers about the new aircraft is limited. Higher class methods are applied in later design steps when the design is mature enough. Lower class methods are sometimes preferred in later design stages, even though the designers have enough knowledge about the design to use higher class methods. In high level multidisciplinary design optimisation (MDO) fidelity is often sacrificed to obtain models with shorter computation times. There is always a compromise required to select the proper weight estimation method for an MDO project.An investigation has been performed to study the effect of using different weight estimation methods, with low and medium levels of fidelity, on the results of a wing design using multidisciplinary design optimisation techniques. An MDO problem was formulated to design the wing planform of a typical turboprop and a turbofan passenger aircraft. The aircraft maximum take-off

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“…The technique achieves high levels of accuracy (average error on the total wing weight is consistently lower than 2%) and design sensitivity with low computational cost. By using the student version of EMWET, the accuracy of the results might slightly deviate from the mentioned above-average error [36]. Approved values from the aircraft type certificate [29] and its technical drawings [25] have been used as inputs to model the structure.…”

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