A robust optimization methodology for preliminary aircraft design

• Published in: Engineering optimization Vol. 48; no. 5; pp. 883 - 899
• Main Authors: Prigent, S., Maréchal, P., Rondepierre, A., Druot, T., Belleville, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 03-05-2016; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Aerospace engineering; Aircraft; Aircraft design; application to aircraft design; Approximation; Computer Aided Engineering; Computer Science; Design engineering; Design optimization; Fuel consumption; Mathematics; Methodology; Optimization; Optimization and Control; optimization under uncertainty; Preliminary designs; Presses; robust linear programming; Application to aircraft design; Robust linear programming; Optimization under uncertainty
• ISSN: 0305-215X; 1029-0273
• DOI: 10.1080/0305215X.2015.1062985

This article focuses on a robust optimization of an aircraft preliminary design under operational constraints. According to engineers' know-how, the aircraft preliminary design problem can be modelled as an uncertain optimization problem whose objective (the cost or the fuel consumption) is almost affine, and whose constraints are convex. It is shown that this uncertain optimization problem can be approximated in a conservative manner by an uncertain linear optimization program, which enables the use of the techniques of robust linear programming of Ben-Tal, El Ghaoui, and Nemirovski [Robust Optimization, Princeton University Press, 2009]. This methodology is then applied to two real cases of aircraft design and numerical results are presented.