OpenMDAO Conventional Aircraft Sizing Exploration using OpenConcept

This is was an independent study reserach project exploring the field of multidisciplinary design optimization for conventional aerosapce applications. It uses source code developed by the MDOLab at the University of Michigan, and implement aircraft design equations from textbooks to explore aircraft design sizing and wing shape optimization. Specifically, it leverages and the OpenMDAO package OpenConcept as a aircraft mission analysis code, and OpenAeroStruct to perform perforamnce based optimization. Some of the notable accomplishments of this project are:

Created multidisciplinary design optimization framework components in OpenMDAO to size conventional aircraft configurations, successfully showed POC can size small narrowbody and turboprop aircraft; components included weights, empennage, aerodynamic, and propulsion scaling models used in aircraft buildup and analysis

Integrated existing mission analysis software as performance engine; allowing for aircraft design sizing across design space using block fuel, total fuel, and mission time as optimization objective functions

Wrote cost modelling tools using published aircraft design works to develop cost-based objective function; coupled with mission analysis code to verify optimized design trends match industry expectations

Added wing shape parameters as optimization design variables using OpenMDAO wing modelling tool unlocking aircraft sizing capability with tandem wing shape optimization

Documented analytical methods and references as final paper and presented to professors and lab teams