MULTIDISCIPLINARY AEROSPACE DESIGN OPTIMIZATION - SURVEY OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

The increasing complexity of engineering systems has sparked rising in terest in multidisciplinary optimization (MDO). This paper surveys rec ent publications in the field of aerospace, in which the interest in M DO has been particularly intense. The primary c hallenges in MDO are c omputational expense and organizational complexity. Accordingly, this survey focuses on various methods used by different researchers to add ress these challenges. The survey is organized by a breakdown of MDO i nto its conceptual components, reflected in sections on mathematical m odelling, approximation concepts, optimization procedures, system sens itivity, and human interface. Because the authors' primary area of exp ertise is in the structures discipline, the majority of the references focus on the interaction of this discipline with others. In particula r, two sections at the end of this review focus on two interactions th at have recently been pursued with vigour: tile simultaneous optimizat ion of structures and aerodynamics and the simultaneous optimization o f structures with active control.