The tailoring of materials to improve performance and reduce manufacturing cost is applicable to a wide range of products from cars to civil engineering structures to jet engines. However, the efficient utilization of tailored materials requires the design integration of several disciplines. This integration of the design process is addressed by this research. The proposed research is focussed on integrating the processes of aerodynamic and structural designs as a prototype for design integration. Two methods will be explored; simultaneous analysis and optimization, which seeks to optimize the combined equations for structures and for aerodynamics, and second, partial-decoupling, which optimizes each part separately and fits them together through a modally reduced number of cross-sensitivity derivatives. It is expected that the research will lead to improved and more efficient techniques for multi-disciplinary design optimization. Although aircraft structural-aerodynamic optimization is considered here, the mathematical and computer techniques have a wider application and importance to future inter-disciplinary designs. The principal investigators have a good reputation in the area of optimization techniques and structural mechanics.
