Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

Abstract

Modern large-scale vehicle design (aircraft, ships, automobiles, mass transit) requires the interaction of multiple disciplines, traditionally processed in a sequential order. Multidisciplinary optimization (MDO), a formal methodology for the integration of these disciplines, is evolving toward methods capable of replacing the traditional sequential methodology of vehicle design by concurrent algorithms, with both an overall gain in product performance and a decrease in design time. The obstacles to MDO becoming a production methodology, in the same sense as quality control, are numerous and formidable. In aircraft design, for instance, typical disciplines involved would be aerodynamics, structures, thermodynamics, controls, propulsion, manufacture, and economics. Detailed analyses in each of these disciplines could involve tens to hundreds of subroutines and tens of thousands of lines of code. Managing the software libraries and data alone is a daunting task.