This paper aims to develop a new method of fuselage drag optimization that can obtain results faster than the conventional methods based on full computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations and can be used to improve the efficiency of preliminary design.

    Design/methodology/approach

    An efficient method for helicopter fuselage shape optimization based on surrogate-based optimization is presented. Two numerical simulation methods are applied in different stages of optimization according to their relative advantages. The fast panel method is used to calculate the sample data to save calculation time for a large number of sample points. The initial solution is obtained by combining the Kriging surrogate model and the multi-island genetic algorithm. Then, the accuracy of the solution is determined by using the infill criteria based on CFD corrections. A parametric model of the fuselage is established by several characteristic sections and guiding curves.

    Findings

    It is demonstrated that this method can greatly reduce the calculation time while ensuring a high accuracy in the XH-59A helicopter example. The drag coefficient of the optimized fuselage is reduced by 13.3%. Because of the use of different calculation methods for samples, this novel method reduces the total calculation time by almost fourfold compared with full CFD calculations.

    Originality/value

    To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to provide a novel method of fuselage drag optimization by combining different numerical simulation methods. Some suggestions on fuselage shape optimization are given for the XH-59A example.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    An efficient method for helicopter fuselage shape optimization


    Contributors:
    Zhu, Jiahao (author) / Xu, Guohua (author) / Shi, Yongjie (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2023-06-01


    Size :

    12 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    Light helicopter fuselage

    SUN ZHIWU | European Patent Office | 2022

    Free access

    Unmanned helicopter fuselage structure

    LIU MINSHENG / BO XIAOMING | European Patent Office | 2021

    Free access

    HELICOPTER UAV FUSELAGE BULKHEAD MODELLING

    Ladislav KUŽMA / Dalibor KUŽMA / Žaneta MIŽENKOVÁ | DOAJ | 2016

    Free access

    Unmanned helicopter fuselage truss structure

    SUN ZHIWU | European Patent Office | 2022

    Free access

    Armored Structural Helicopter Fuselage Study

    R. T. Welge / W. E. Huebner | NTIS | 1973