Developing safe and minimum weight structures is the driving factor in aircraft structural design. The heavier the airframe, the more fuel per passenger is required, or the shorter the range achieved. Commonly, weight reduction programs have to be launched deep into the detailed design phase, and are characterized by local, manual modifications to the design, applying more expensive materials, or adjustments to the manufacturing process, for example to achieve reduced minimum gauges.
Improved overall arrangement of materials provides the largest potential for saving structural weight in airframe design. Tools for topology optimisation support these early, important decisions by suggesting optimal material distributions. Current commercial design and decision-support tools do not allow the full potential of composite materials to be exploited in airfame design This requires new tools that are targeted at the specific requirements within aerospace structural design.
PLATO-N will enable the operational integration of optimisation assistance as a standard procedure in the conceptual design process for the European aerospace industry. PLATO-N will be validated against real case studies and will be implemented as a suite of software, integrated in a common environment, and its improvement in performance will be benchmarked against state-of-the art commercial products.
PLATO-N will help to win global leadership for European aeronautics, by providing advanced tools that reduces the time and cost of designing and developing new aircraft.