Including Gradient-based Transient Gust Optimization in ASTROS

ifasd2024 Tracking Number 12

Recent advancements in conceptual and preliminary air vehicle design seek to inject higher-fidelity analyses into early design processes to capture physics-based aircraft performance as soon as possible in the design cycle. This philosophy is often realized in the form of high-fidelity coupled aeroelastic or aeroservoelastic design via analysis including quasisteady maneuver behavior or flutter. However, there are relatively few efforts to include transient aeroelastic solutions in design, and those cases are limited in the context of a conceptual design process. This work seeks to leverage an existing aeroelastic solver, ASTROS, and enhance the design capability to include analytical stress gradients for designing a high aspect ratio wing under transient gust stress constraints. Previous development of ASTROS has excluded transient gusts from optimization due to computational cost and was primarily used for checking final designs. Including gust analysis in the early stages of aeroelastic conceptual design could mitigate late-stage redesigns to account for gust loads certification.