A Multilevel Decomposition Procedure for the Preliminary Wing Design of a High-speed Civil Transport Aircraft

A multilevel decomposition approach for the preliminary design of a High Speed Civil Transport Aircraft wing structure is described. The wing design is decomposed into three levels. The top level uses the FLOPS aircraft synthesis program to generate preliminary weights, mission, and performance information. The optimization criterion is productivity expressed by a productivity index for the specified mission. The second level of the system performs a finite-element based structural optimization of the wing box with the help of the ASTROS structural optimization tool. The wing structure is sized subject to strength, buckling, and aeroelastic constraints. The buckling constraint information is supplied by the third level where a detailed buckling optimization of individual skin cover panels is performed.