AeroStruct: Enable and Learn How to Integrate Flexibility in Design: Contributions to the Closing Symposium of the German Research Initiative AeroStruct, ... and Multidisciplinary Design Book 138)

Since the education of aeronautical engineers at Delft University of Technology started in 1940 under tae inspiring leadership of Professor H.J. van der Maas, much emphasis has been placed on the design of aircraft as part of the student's curriculum. Not only is aircraft design an optional subject for thesis work, but every aeronautical student has to carry out a preliminary airplane design in the course of his study. The main purpose of this preliminary design work is to enable the student to synthesize the knowledge ob­ tained separately in courses on aerodynamics, aircraft performances, stability and con­ trol, aircraft structures, etc. The student's exercises in preliminary design have been directed through the years by a number of staff members of the Department of Aerospace Engineering in Delft. The author of this book, Mr. E. Torenbeek, has made a large contribution to this part of the study programme for many years. Not only has he acquired vast experience in teaching airplane design at university level, but he has also been deeply involved in design-oriented re­ search, e.g. developing rational design methods and systematizing design information. I am very pleased that this wealth of experience, methods and data is now presented in this book. This book reports on the German research initiative AeroStruct, a three-year collaborative project between universities and the aircraft industry. It describes the development of an integrated multidisciplinary simulation environment for aircraft analysis and optimization using high-fidelity methods. This system is able to run at a high level of automatism, thus representing a step forward with respect to previous ones. Its special features are: a CAD description that is independent from the disciplines involved, an automated CFD mesh generation and an automated structure model generation including a sizing process. The book also reports on test cases by both industrial partners and DLR demonstrating the advantages of the new environment and its suitability for the industry. These results were also discussed during the AeroStruct closing Symposium, which took place on 13-14 October 2015 at the DLR in Braunschweig, Germany. The book provides expert readers with a timely report on multidisciplinary aircraft design and optimization. Thanks to a good balance between theory and practice, it is expected to address an audience of both academics and professional, and to offer them new ideas for future research and development.