Value-based multidisciplinary optimization for commercial aircraft program design

Traditional commercial aircraft design attempts to achieve improved performance and reduced operating costs by minimizing maximum takeoff weight, but this approach (does not guarantee the financial viability of the program to the manufacturer. Improved design practices would take into account not only aircraft performance but also financial aspects of the design. The methodology suggested herein investigates multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) involving performance and finance jointly in aircraft program design, as well as assessment of program business risk. A value-based MDO framework couples a performance model with an improved stochastic program valuation, accounting explicitly for both uncertain demand via market volatility and managerial flexibility by invoking Real Options theory. Stochastic program value is used as the new objective for the design optimization problem. The methodology and framework developed are applied to a design example for the Blended-Wing-Body aircraft concept. Value-based optimization yields a design with a 2.3%-higher program value than that of the conventional minimum-weight solution.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Peoples, Ryan E

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Karen Willcox.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32117

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32117