Multidisciplinary Optimization of Composite Structures under Uncertainty

Purpose and goal

The purpose is to develop an SO-based design functionality for multidisciplinary design problems under uncertainty, with the aim to significantly enhance the robustness and reliability of composite designs under material uncertainty for aerospace applications, such as aeroelasticity, vibration and buckling. Implement the developed design functionality in commercial CAE software, to be used for conceptual design of future aircraft systems and evaluation and optimization of existing composite designs to meet current operational requirements.

Expected effects and result

The proposed project intends to provide industrial partners with knowledge and tools that will lead to more cost-effective design processes and increased robustness and reliability of composite structures. A successful implementation of the project will significantly improve the ability to simulate, optimize and evaluate the behavior of composite structures on a fleet-wide level, thus ensuring that the fleet-wide sizing of the airframes is sufficient to minimize the risk of catastrophic failure occurring on individual aircraft.

Planned approach and implementation

The project work is divided into 4 workpackages that center around 4 main project objectives 1-Method development 2-CAE software integration 3-Testing and evaluation 4-Demostrator validation. Each objective focuses on different aspects of development, validation and industrialization of a CAE design functionality intended for large scale design applications. The knowledge gained will enable novel design tools to be applied, leading to increased reliability and cost-effective design processes and methodology of composites within the Swedish aerospace industry.