Comparative Assessment of Strut-Braced and Truss-Braced Wing Configurations Using Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

This paper presents a study of aircraft featuring truss-braced wing configurations that have been optimized for minimum fuel consumption using multidisciplinary design optimization. The investigation proceeds following an earlier Boeing Subsonic Ultra Green Aircraft Research N+3 study, which selected the truss-braced wing concept as the most promising of several N+3 concept vehicles. This comes from the fact that a significantly higher-aspect-ratio wing could achieve substantial reductions in induced drag but requires major structural changes to support such a large span. This problem was explored through the use of a multidisciplinary design and analysis environment implemented in ModelCenter®. Optimization was performed using ModelCenter’s Design Explorer and Darwin genetic algorithm optimizers. Using the multidisciplinary environment, a large multidimensional design space, featuring design variables spread across the major aircraft design disciplines, was explored. Configurations featuring a strut-brac...