Aircraft configuration and flight profile optimization using simulated annealing

✍ Scribed by Rajkumar Pant; J.P. Fielding

• Book ID: 104420844
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 299 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1369-8869
• DOI: 10.1016/s1369-8869(99)00020-8

✦ Synopsis

This paper discusses the application of simulated annealing in the conceptual design and optimization of twin-turboprop Commuter & Regional aircraft to obtain the optimum con"guration and #ight pro"le of such aircraft for operation over a given stage length. Generalized cost of travel incurred by a passenger for air travel between two cities is considered as the objective function to be minimized. Generalized cost is assumed to consist of four cost terms, viz., access cost, #ight cost, time cost and airport cost. A computational methodology was developed for the estimation of these cost terms for short-haul air travel, as a function of 17 design variables and nine constraints. A simulated annealing optimization method was coupled to this methodology and a case study for short-haul business travel in India was carried out. A modi"ed optimization strategy was adopted to reduce the overall computation time required. The results obtained in this case study are discussed in the paper.