To achieve the above objectives, the research effort started with the evaluation of the numerical simulations required for wing design. Wing performance required and understanding of both the aerodynamics and the structures disciplines, and their coupling. The action involved the application of models that coupled both of these disciplines with tools that perform the automatic optimization of wing shape and structural sizing. Although efficient numerical methods have been developed in academia that can perform this automatic optimization efficiently, the value of these results has yet to be vetted by the aircraft industry. Part of the action involved adding the missing components required to obtain practical designs.
At ISAE, where the beneficiary was hosted, he started collaborating on a few different projects that are ongoing. In collaboration with the action host and one of his students, they investigated the Multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of a scaled aeroelastic flight demonstrator.
Another collaborating focused on using some of the wing design tools mentioned above to the design optimization of a high-performance sailing. Yet another collaboration studied the design of a blended-wing body aircraft. Both ISAE and the host benefited from the many technical exchanges with other faculty.
The beneficiary took advantage of existing collaborations of ISAE with ONERA. This resulted in research efforts in three different topics: new techniques for surrogate modeling applied to aircraft design, a new optimization framework for aircraft design, wing aerodynamic shape optimization using gradient-free methods. Additionally, the beneficiary advised for the European projects AGILE and AMEDEO in which ONERA is participating.
The beneficiary also worked with the newly established IRT (Institut de Recherche Technologique) on a project that resulted in new MDO approaches for real-world aircraft design projects that also involves Airbus.
The beneficiary made several visits to Airbus in Toulouse, and gave a short course at Airbus in Filton, UK. The beneficiary gave 16 presentations, workshops or short courses throughout his stay at ISAE, ONERA (multiple sites), Airbus (multiple sites), Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Dassault Aviation, Ecole Polytechnique the Paris, University of Bristol, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Institut Clément Ader, and ENSEEIHT.
The research performed started an effort that is ongoing and is expected to make a lasting impact at Airbus by implementing developing new computational tools for the design of next-generation aircraft. One overarching conclusion is that while the computational tools developed in academic setting are efficient, they need to be adapted towards the industrial workflow and setting. In particular, we developed a process for performing the design optimization of scaled flight demonstrators needed by industry to test new concepts where aerodynamic-structural coupling is important.
