An Integrated Environment for Preliminary Aircraft Design and Optimization

Abstract

This paper presents the Multidisciplinary Integrated Conceptual Aircraft Design and Optimization (MICADO) environment that has been developed during the last years at the Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (ILR) of RWTH Aachen University. The MICADO environment allows for automated aircraft design and assessment with a minimum of user input, i.e. a set of top-level requirements and specications. The homogeneous software environment allows for fast parameter studies and optimizations in a wide parameter space and with low computational eort. Due to the integrated design and assessment approach, variations of top-level requirements, local parameter changes as well as integration of new technologies or systems are captured into overall aircraft evaluation parameters such as block fuel or costs. The MICADO software architecture in terms of control and data ow, program structure and parameterization principles is presented. Further, the aircraft design and assessment methodology including the underlying models are discussed, as well as applications of MICADO for aircraft design studies and operational studies. Finally, functionalities and strengths of the proposed methodology are demonstrated by a case study, in which MICADO is used for the design and optimization of a conventional short-range aircraft. For the designed aircraft, variations of initial sizing parameters as well of Mach number and wing sweep angle are performed and overall aircraft design results are discussed.