Composite materials can be used in primary structures of an aircraft if a cost-efficient design is applied. In earlier work, a cost/weight optimization framework has been presented. This is now enhanced by a module that minimizes the manufacturing cost in each iteration by the adaptation of manufacturing parameters. The framework itself is modular and applicable to arbitrary parts and geometries; therefore, commercially available software modules are used. The framework extension is added to an existing cost/weight optimization implementation and tested on an airliner center wing box rear spar. Three opti-mization runs are performed, and a low-cost, an intermediate and a low-weight design solution are found. The difference between the two antagonistic solutions is 4.4% in manufacturing cost and 9.7% in weight. Based on these optimization trials, the effect of the parameter adaptation module is analyzed.
QC 20120117