次世代型宇宙輸送機の機体設計と飛行経路の統合的最適化

抄録

Authors have been attempting to develop a multidisciplinary design optimization tool for a large-scale system using Genetic Algorithm (GA), and to apply this tool to the integrated optimization problem of the airframe design and its flight trajectory for an advanced space transportation vehicle that is a spaceplane. The results of the latest calculation for the problem above obtained by the developed tool showed that airframes (solutions) converged on four areas in the solution space and sensitivity of design variables of the airframe shape was remarkably different in each convergence area. Although high-ranking solutions having good value of the performance index have various airframe configurations, those flight trajectories hardly changed. The best solution showed that it is necessary to reduce the weights of airframe components and to improve the performance of air-breathing engine for realizing a feasible airframe size. It is suggested that this tool is absolutely useful for searching a solution at the conceptual designing phase of a spaceplane.