Knowledge-Based Integrated Aircraft Design: An Applied Approach from Design to Concept Demonstration

This thesis presents a Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) approach and integration of several disciplines in a holistic approach for use in aircraft conceptual design. KBE allows the reuse of obtained aircrafts’ data, information, and knowledge to gain more awareness and a better understanding of the concept under consideration at early stages of design. For this purpose, Knowledge-Based (KB) methodologies are investigated for enhanced geometrical representation and enable variable fidelity tools and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO). The geometry parameterization techniques are qualitative approaches that produce quantitative results in terms of both robustness and flexibility of the design parameterization. The information/parameters from all tools/disciplines and the design intent of the generated concepts are saved and shared via a central database.

The integrated framework facilitates multi-fidelity analysis, combining low-fidelity models with high-fidelity models for a quick estimation, enabling a rapid analysis and enhancing the time for a MDO process. The geometry is further propagated to other disciplines [Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Finite Element Analysis (FEA)] for analysis. This is possible with an automated streamlined process (for CFD, FEM, system simulation) to analyze and increase knowledge early in the design process. Several processes were studied to streamline the geometry for CFD. Two working practices, one for parametric geometry and another for KB geometry are presented for automatic mesh generation.

It is observed that analytical methods provide quicker weight estimation of the design and when coupled with KBE provide a better understanding. Integration of 1-D and 3-D models offers the best of both models: faster simulation, and superior geometrical representation. To validate both the framework and concepts generated from the tools, they are implemented in academia in several courses at Linköping University and in industry