Knowledge-Based Engineering Approach to Support Aircraft Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization

This paper introduces the concept of the design and engineering engine, which is a modular computational design system to support distributed multidisciplinary design and optimization of aircraft. In particular, this paper discusses the architecture and the functionalities of the multimodel generator module, which is a knowledge-based engineering application developed to model the geometry of both conventional and novel aircraft configurations and to automate the generation of dedicated models for low- and high-fidelity analysis tools. This paper demonstrates the capability of the knowledge-based engineering approach to record and automate complex engineering design processes, such as the generation of models for finite element analysis. The time reduction gained by process automation, together with the enabled use of high-fidelity analysis tools earlier in the design process, constitute significant achievements toward a broader exploitation of the multidisciplinary design and optimization methodology, as well as the development of novel aircraft configurations.