| Multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) is a methodology for the design of complex, interdependent systems that is growing in popularity for use in the early phases of aircraft design. The conceptual and preliminary design phases are particularly well suited to the application of MDO considering that the historical approach to aircraft design is broken into specific disciplinary areas, such as aerodynamics, structures, and propulsion. The advantages of this methodology include decreasing the time spent in early design phases, increasing the number of concepts evaluated, increasing the level of detail to which each concept is examined, and decreasing project costs through the elimination of suboptimal designs early in the process. By automating the analysis and the optimization, off-the-shelf optimization and design software can be integrated together. The time to produce a feasible and locally optimal design is reduced and the information is stored in a format compatible with more detailed design software.; This thesis examines the history of automated MDO as applicable to conceptual aircraft design, and outlines the development of a new software tool that addresses some of the issues of flexibility and visualization that have arisen in the past. Two test cases were used to evaluate the performance of both the analysis methods and optimization algorithms, as compared to results of the traditional design methodology. Consequently, recommendations are made to help improve the system model and the objectives of the optimization. |
