Multidisciplinary Design Optimization
Aerospace Engineering – doctoral level
This course covers the methods in multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO), providing an integrated view of complex systems where several domains, such as aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, stability and control, emissions and noise, and cost, compete against each other for the optimal solution in an aerospace design. The students are expected to develop the following skills: Identification of the different disciplines involved in a design; Selection of analysis tools for each discipline; Use of classical optimization techniques and new multidisciplinary techniques; Mathematical definition of optimization problems (design variables, objective function and constraints); Selection of appropriate optimization methods; Selection of the appropriate multidisciplinary coupling type and decomposition approach; and Numerical solution of MDO problems.
Aircraft Optimal Design
Aerospace Engineering – graduate level
This course covers the fundamental aspects of aircraft optimal design using numerical tools. The multidisciplinarity in aircraft design is discussed and the concept of optimal design is introduced. An overview of optimization methods is presented, with emphasis to gradient-based, followed by a comparison of multidisciplinary design optimization approaches. The importance of formulating the optimization problem and choosing appropriate fidelity models for each discipline and identifying the coupling between them is discussed. Numerical examples of aerodynamic, structural and aerostructural optimization give the student an insight of not only the importance of the choice of design variables, objective and constraints, but also their physical impact on aircraft performance. The objective of this course is then to provide the student with an understanding of how complex multidisciplinary problems can be tackled numerically, in particular for aircraft design, in an optimization framework.
Flight Stability
Aerospace Engineering – undergraduate level
The course introduces the basic concepts of Flight Stability. Models of static and dynamic stability of the airplane will be derived, in order to study its behavior in several flight regimes, having prior knowledge of forces and torques applied to the wing, body and stabilizers. The concepts of static and dynamic stability and the equation of motions for the airplane are introduced. The motion is analyzed in terms of longitudinal and lateral modes. The effects of aerodynamic stability derivatives on the behavior of the equations of motion for small perturbations are studied.