System and method for aircraft design optimization and performance
AssigneeAurora Flight Sciences Corporation
InventorsChristopher Courtin, Cory Kays
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An aircraft design optimization system and associated aircraft design optimization architecture. The aircraft design optimization system may comprise an input circuit to provide input data and an optimizer circuit to receive the input data and to communicate with a plurality of modules to create output data. At least one abstraction layer can be provided between the optimizer circuit and each of the plurality of modules. The optimizer circuit is configured to output the output data to a post-processing circuit. Each of the plurality of modules implements a different function.
Claims22
An aircraft design optimization system comprising:
- an optimizer circuit configured to receive initial aircraft (IA) data and initial mission (IM) data relating to an initial aircraft design for an aircraft;
- a vehicle sizing circuit and a secondary model circuit operatively coupled with the optimizer circuit to generate, via a processor-controlled design optimization convergence loop, aircraft (A) data and mission (M) data relating to a modified aircraft design for the aircraft,
- wherein the vehicle sizing circuit is configured to provide mission history (MH) data to the optimizer circuit and the secondary model circuit is configured to provide model output (MO) data to the optimizer circuit based at least in part on the initial aircraft (IA) and initial mission (IM) data;
- and
- an objective module operatively coupled with the optimizer circuit and configured to generate objective data (OD) reflecting an objective function based at least in part on the aircraft (A) data, the mission (M) data, the mission history (MH) data, and the model output (MO) data received from the optimizer circuit,
- wherein the optimizer circuit configured to output the aircraft (A) data, the mission (M) data, and the mission history (MH) data to a post-processing circuit based at least in part on the objective data (OD).
A method for optimizing an aircraft design, the method comprising:
- receiving, via an optimizer circuit, initial aircraft (IA) data and initial mission (IM) data relating to an initial aircraft design for an aircraft;
- generating, via a processor-controlled design optimization convergence loop, aircraft (A) data and mission (M) data relating to a modified aircraft design for the aircraft,
- wherein the processor-controlled design optimization convergence loop employs a vehicle sizing circuit and a secondary model circuit operatively coupled with the optimizer circuit;
- providing, via the vehicle sizing circuit, mission history (MH) data to the optimizer circuit based at least in part on the initial aircraft (IA) and initial mission (IM) data;
- providing, via the secondary model circuit, model output (MO) data to the optimizer circuit based at least in part on the initial aircraft (IA) and initial mission (IM) data;
- generating objective data (OD), via an objective module, reflecting an objective function based at least in part on the aircraft (A) data, the mission (M) data, the mission history (MH) data, and the model output (MO) data received from the optimizer circuit,
- wherein the objective module is operatively coupled with the optimizer circuit;
- and
- outputting, via the optimizer circuit, the aircraft (A) data, the mission (M) data, and the mission history (MH) data to a post-processing circuit based at least in part on the objective data (OD).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.