Geometrical parameterisation has an important role in the aircraft design process due to its impact on the computational efficiency and accuracy in evaluating different configurations. In the early design stages, an aircraft geometrical model is normally described parametrically with a small number of design parameters which allows fast computation. However, this provides only a course approximation which is generally limited to conventional configurations, where the models have already been validated. An efficient parameterisation method is therefore required to allow rapid synthesis and analysis of novel configurations. Within this context, the main objectives of this research are: 1) Develop an economical geometrical parameterisation method which captures sufficient detail suitable for aerodynamic analysis and optimisation in early design stage, and2) Close the gap between conceptual and preliminary design stages by bringing more detailed information earlier in the design process. Research efforts were initially focused on the parameterisation of two-dimensional curves by evaluating five widely-cited methods for airfoil against five desirable properties. Several metrics have been proposed to measure these properties, based on airfoil fitting tests. The comparison suggested that the Class-Shape Functions Transformation (CST) method is most suitable and therefore was chosen as the two-dimensional curve generation method. A set of blending functions have been introduced and combined with the two-dimensional curves to generate a three-dimensional surface. These surfaces form wing or body sections which are assembled together through a proposed joining algorithm. An object-oriented structure for aircraft components has also been proposed. This allows modelling of the main aircraft surfaces which contain sufficient level of accuracy while utilising a parsimonious number of intuitive design parameters ... [cont.].

The goal of this thesis is to create a conceptual design of a rally car in Ra5 (former R1) category. The thesis contains interpretation of regulations, overview of former cars in this category and requirements for such vehicle. The thesis describes choice of vehicle and description of modifications, including specific components. The thesis also describes construction of several designs of rollcage, which were mutually compared, and their homologation tests. The thesis also determines small series price of such vehicle.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to design a new high-wing aircraft for the company TL ultralight using the structural elements from another models from their portfolio. The design is created with an emphasis on crew comfort and cabin ergonomics. The first part of the thesis focuses on the description of the basic requirements for the aircraft and its classification in aviation regulations. It also contains a research part of competing types and currently produced type, which the proposed aircraft should replace in the company's portfolio. Then follows the characteristics of the individual parts of the airframe, the specification of the parts, which will be used from another types from portfolio, and parts which will be completely designed. Great emphasis is placed on the layout of the interior and its design and ergonomic. The proposed aircraft then demonstrates theoretical calculations of basic performances and a preliminary mass analysis. In the end, the benefits of the newly designed aircraft are evaluated with respect to the competing types.

Research into cultural dynamics and trend mechanisms has been used to “deconstruct” theinfluence structure of fashion in a way that can be applied to a hypothetical design strategy.The design strategy revolves around designing products with the intension to indirectlycommunicate an idea or ideas and by taking advantage of a products emotional value, toincrease structural and cognitive embeddedness of underlying ideas.The application of the strategy is the design of a smart product called “Gelo”. Gelo is a ‘smartwall’ concept that uses soft robotic actuators to transform its surface to adapt to changinglight conditions, improve room acoustics, and produce dynamic visual displays.By using HASEL soft robot actuators for movement, emerging technology could be exploredthrough the medium a conceptual consumer product while also allowing interestingfunctionality to be implemented to the Gelo concept. The addition of this functionalityallowed for ‘display like’ properties which are used to explore the idea of smart home devicesas a way of provide an enhanced emotional experienced.

Conceptual design optimization (CDO) is a technique proposed for the structured evaluation of different design concepts. Design grammars provide a flexible modular modelling architecture. The model is generated by a compiler based on predefined components and rules. The rules describe the composition of the model; thus, different models can be optimized by the CDO in one run. This allows considering a mission design including the mission analysis and the system design. The combination of a CDO approach with a model based on design grammars is shown for the concept study of a near-Earth asteroid mission. The mission objective is to investigate two asteroids of different kinds. The CDO reveals that a mission concept using two identical spacecrafts flying to one target each is better than a mission concept with one spacecraft flying to two asteroids consecutively.

This thesis presents the work done to implement new computational tools and methods dedicated to aircraft conceptual design sizing and optimization. These tools have been exercised on different aircraft concepts in order to validate them and assess their relevance and applicability to practical cases. First, a geometry construction protocol has been developed. It is indeed essential to have a geometry description that supports the derivation of all discretizations and idealizations used by the different analysis modules (aerodynamics, weights and balance, stability and control, etc.) for which an aircraft concept is evaluated. The geometry should also be intuitive to the user, general enough to describe a wide array of morphologies and suitable for optimization. All these conditions are fulfilled by an appropriate parameterization of the geometry. In addition, a tool named CADac (Computer Aided Design aircraft) has been created in order to produce automatically a closed and consistent CAD solid model of the designs under study. The produced CAD model is easily meshable and therefore high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computations can be performed effortlessly without need for tedious and time-consuming post-CAD geometry repair.Second, an unsteady vortex-lattice method based on TORNADO has been implemented in order to enlarge to scope of flight conditions that can be analyzed. It has been validated satisfactorily for the sudden acceleration of a flat plate as well as for the static and dynamic derivatives of the Saab 105/SK 60.Finally, a methodology has been developed to compute quickly in a semi-empirical way the buffet envelope of new aircraft geometries at the conceptual stage. The parameters that demonstrate functional sensitivity to buffet onset have been identified and their relative effect quantified. The method uses a combination of simple sweep theory and fractional change theory as well as the buffet onset of a seed aircraft or a provided generic buffet onset to estimate the buffet envelope of any target geometry. The method proves to be flexible and robust enough to predict within mainly 5% (and in any case 9%) the buffet onset for a wide variety of aircrafts, from regional turboprop to long-haul wide body or high-speed business jets.This work was done within the 6th European framework project SimSAC (Simulating Stability And Control) whose task is to create a multidisciplinary simulation environment named CEASIOM (Computerized Environment for Aircraft Synthesis and Integrated Optimization Methods), oriented toward stability and control and specially suited for aircraft conceptual design sizing and optimization. / QC 20101104 / SimSAC

This thesis presents a tool for conceptual design of a traditional configuration aircraft by using a parametric six degrees of freedom (6DOF) flight mechanics model implemented in the Modelica Language using Wolfram System Modeler. Being first only able to model and simulate the uncontrolled flight of an aircraft with fixed mass and centre of gravity (CG), and requiring detailed aerodynamic parameters as an input, the 6DOF model is improved by developing new features to reduce the number of required inputs while also increasing the data output of the simulations. First, the propulsion submodel is added with models for alternative propulsions to the existing model of turbofan engines. The energy and fuel consumption is also modelled for all propulsion types, and thus the aircraft model has no longer fixed mass properties, except for aircraft with electric propulsion. To further evaluate the fuel consumption for pre-defined flight missions with given flight speed, altitude and track angles, autopilots for a few different aircraft types are developed. Additionally, the 6DOF model is improved by establishing algebraic and statistical relationships between the aircraft geometric input parameters, aerodynamic coefficients and moments of inertia such that the values for the two last mentioned can be estimated inside the 6DOF model based on the minimum amount of design variables, geometric input parameters and aerodynamic properties of the 2D airfoils used in the wings. Ultimately, the improved 6DOF model is evaluated and analysed in terms of its performance in initial weight estimation on aircraft conceptual design stage as well as in predicting the aerodynamic properties.

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<p>Throughout the design process, systems engineers use analysis tools to characterize the composition, development, and behavior of complex engineered systems. As such, designers must ensure that these tools generate accurate results for the systems they’re designed to analyze. One such suite of tools is the Analytic Workbench (AWB), a framework couched in a model-based systems engineering (MBSE) environment which provides methods for integrating constituent systems into a system-of-systems (SoS) or a complex engineered system, while taking into account the capabilities and requirements of the constituent systems, and the interdependencies between them. Hypersonic vehicles present a number of design challenges that result in a narrow performance envelope and a high degree of interdependence between subsystems, and so the AWB provides an appropriate tool set for characterizing the conceptual design of this class of system. The purpose of this thesis is to generate effectiveness metrics for the tools within the AWB — specifically Robust Portfolio Optimization (RPO) and System Developmental Dependency Analysis (SDDA) — in the context of a hypersonic vehicle design problem. In particular, this thesis focuses on verification and validation metrics, and applies these metrics to several demonstration cases, in which the outputs of RPO and SDDA analyses of a hypersonic vehicle model consisting of top-level subsystems are compared with a hypothetical physical vehicle. This thesis examines several candidate effectiveness metrics, and then applies the ones that satisfy the requirements for RPO and SDDA verification and validation to the appropriate demonstration cases. The AWB outputs for the vehicle models in these demonstration cases deviate slightly from the corresponding quantities for the hypothetical physical vehicles, and the effectiveness metrics decrease in value the greater these deviations are. Subsequent explorations of these metrics could apply these effectiveness to other types of design problems, including analyses involving lower-level subsystems of hypersonic vehicles.</p>

This degree work places itself in the field of textile design, surface patterns and conceptual design. The aim of the work is to use the human body as a tool for designing conceptual surface patterns onto textiles. The methods of designing were done through practical workshops. Examples of workshops is shadow workshop, motif workshop and pattern workshop. For each workshop appropriate rules was decided based on analizis of preveous workshops. The outcome could be presented as two types of results; firstly, a design method for generating surface patterns, and secondly, heat transfer printed textiles that prove the validity of the method. The work proposes an alternative approach for inspiration to designing surface patterns.