Multi-fidelity geometry-centric multi-disciplinary analysis for design

Aerospace vehicle design can be described as an evolutionary process of gathering information to make informed decisions. Meticulous application of this process involves numerous simulations covering many disciplines and fidelity levels. A design team needs to be able to easily increase or decrease fidelity as they gather more information about a particular design. To this end a geometry system that can support multi-disciplinary, multi-fidelity analysis from a single source is required. The Computational Aircraft Prototype Syntheses (CAPS), which is a part of the Engineering Sketch Pad (ESP), satisfies the above by combining proven computational geometry, meshing, and analyses model generation techniques into a complete browser-based, client-server environment that is accessible to the entire design team of an aerospace vehicle. CAPS links analysis and meshing disciplines to any ESP geometry model via dynamically-loadable Analysis Interface Module (AIM) plugins. CAPS is accessed from either a browser-based user interface and or Multi-Disciplinary Analysis and Optimization (MDAO) framework through a programing interface. In this paper we describe the fundamental building blocks of CAPS and ESP. The paradigm shift of creating geometry for multi-fidelity design is described in detail and represented in ESP scripts. We then demonstrate the use of this multi-fidelity geometry to support multi-fidelity, multi-physics analysis including discipline coupling.