Enhancing A Distributed Electric Propulsion Configuration Aircraft Design With A Multidisciplinary Analysis And Optimization Approach

Abstract

The aviation industry's current push to reduce emissions has sparked interest in highly integrated hybrid-electric aircraft. Distributed electric propulsion (DEP) systems show promise in helping achieve these emission targets. However, the high integration of aircraft structure, aerodynamics, propulsion, and power supply in hybrid-electric DEP systems necessitates a multidisciplinary analysis approach to identify robust design trade-offs. This paper presents an extended multidisciplinary design and optimisation framework applied to a hybrid-electric regional aircraft configuration. The traditional aerostructural optimization process has been enhanced to include aircraft stability and control aspects. To balance computational costs with accuracy of the optimization, a multi-fidelity approach is employed, utilizing both full-order and reduced-order models. An analytical model has been integrated to assess the flying qualities of the aircraft within the multidisciplinary framework. The results emphasize the critical role of accurate aerodynamic prediction models and the importance of incorporating flying qualities constraints during the optimsation of an aircraft desgin.