Multi-objective multidisciplinary optimization of long-endurance UAV wing using surrogate models in model center

The multidisciplinary optimization for a long-endurance UAV wing is carried out involved aerodynamic and structural disciplines. Due to the high aspect ratio feature of the wing, aerodynamic-structural coupling is considered. The common CATIA parametric model and an interpolation approach are adopted to implement the aerodynamic-structural coupled analysis. The optimization consists of two phases. The airfoil is optimized to enhance aerodynamic performance in the first phase, and then in the second phase, with the optimized airfoil optimization for 3D wing is conducted to improve the aerodynamic and structural performance. Collaborative optimization strategy and weighting method to deal with multi-objective functions are adopted in the second phase. As to reduce computational cost, RS and Kriging surrogate models are employed to approximate high fidelity CFD/FEA analysis models. Furthermore, all the CAX software, analysis models and algritms are integrated together in ModelCenter, which makes modeling and optimization more convenient and efficient. The optimization results of the long-endurance UAV wing proves that the optimization approaches and procedures proposed in this paper can improve the aerodynamic and structural performance simultaneously, thus they can be used to design and optimize other high aspect ratio wings as well.