MULTILEVEL SIMULATION AND NUMERICAL OPTIMIZATION OF COMPLEX ENGINEERING DESIGNS

Multilevel representations have been studied extensively by artificial intelligence researchers. We present a general method that utilizes t he multilevel paradigm to attack the problem of performing multidiscip line engineering design optimization in the presence of many local opt ima. The method uses a multidisciplinary simulator at multiple levels of abstraction, paired with a multilevel search space. We tested the m ethod in the domain of conceptual design of supersonic transport aircr aft, focusing on the airframe and the exhaust nozzle, and using sequen tial quadratic programming as the optimizer at, each level. We found t hat using multilevel simulation and optimization can decrease the cost of design space search by an order of magnitude.