AIAA-2007-406-109.pdf

45th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit 8-11 January 2006, Reno NV - 1 - Incorporation of Aerothermodynamic Analysis Tools into the Multi-Disciplinary Conceptual Design Process R. Cunnington*, T.T. Takahashi, L.V. Bays#, Raytheon Missile Systems Tucson, AZ 85706 The aerothermodynamic tailoring of external shape, primary and secondary structural materials and operating characteristics is an essential attribute of a high Mach air-vehicle. Although legacy multi-disciplinary methods have coupled simplified aerothermodynamic models with trajectory optimization codes, we seek to address the conceptual design phase of a new air vehicle. It is typical that primary vehicle configuration decisions (that involving the detail planform, materials and thermal protection system layout of wings, fins and primary structure) are, at the conceptual design level, made using extremely simple analyses and heuristics. We seek to apply explicit aerothermodynamic analysis methods to produce new insight to affect a vehicle conceptual design at the system level. Introduction The conceptual design phase of a new air vehicle is arguably the most important phase in product development. However, the actual work performed during the pre-design phase is often the least understood process in aerospace vehicle design. In particular, conceptual design is often very abstract, where the design risk is buried within multi-disciplinary uncertainty particularly among those design variables that define the vehicle external configuration, vehicle subsystem packaging, primary and secondary materials. In fact, these design variables directly impact system mission performance, system life cycle cost and development risk. For a high speed vehicle, proper selection of vehicle shape, surface and structural materials, and their response to aerothermal environments will have a large impact upon vehicle feasibility, dry weight, structural integrity and cost. Similar