Gust and Maneuver Load Alleviation in Conceptual Aircraft Design

Load alleviation technologies are a promising approach to increase the fuel burn efficiency. Ideally, they should be taken into account already in the early design phase, where the geometry shape is defined. Implementing the capability for a correlated evaluation requires a multi-disciplinary simulation approach. The conceptual aircraft design framework within this paper includes coupled and physics-based models of the disciplines aerodynamics, structures and flight dynamics. The software ASWING from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is included and provides an unsteady lifting-line calculation combined with non-linear Euler beam theory. The wing shape is optimized within a nine-dimensional design space via a surrogate model approach. The objective function is a multi-point mission block fuel. The difference between an optimized aircraft design without and with maneuver load alleviation shows a potential of 5.3% combined block fuel savings. The effects of gust load alleviation on loads and the overall aircraft design are discussed.