NASA SBIR 2008 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
ZONA Technology, Inc.
9489 E. Ironwood Square Drive
Scottsdale, AZ 85258 - 4578
(480) 945-9988

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Ping-Chih Chen
pc@zonatech.com
9489 E. Ironwood Square Dr.
Scottsdale, AZ 85258 - 4578
(480) 945-9988

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 6 to 7

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
CFD-based design-oriented (DO) steady/unsteady aerodynamic analysis tools for Aeroelastic / Aeroservoelastic (AE/ASE) evaluation lag significantly behind other multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) developments for flight vehicle design. In practically all studies to date involving configuration multidisciplinary shape optimization, dynamic AE/ASE constraints were left out, thus, rendering the design results incomplete. Flutter, gust stresses, vibration, fatigue, ride comfort, handling qualities – all extremely important – still cannot be accounted for in an automated design process involving configuration shape variations. Proposed here is the creation of a comprehensive design-oriented CFD-based unsteady-aerodynamic methodology to enhance current flight vehicle shape MDO capabilities by the creation of AE/ASE shape sensitivities and efficient approximations tailored for large-scale design optimization. ZONA Technology's proven ZEUS code serves as the aerodynamic base for this development. In Phase II aerodynamic shape sensitivities for AE/ASE shape optimization will be developed for general 3D configurations made of lifting surfaces and bodies. The subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic flight regimes will be covered. Integration with shape optimization finite-element structural codes will be demonstrated, covering diverse AE/ASE constraints including flutter and gust response. This new general capability will fit any aerospace vehicle MDO environment, and will provide a critically needed MDO building block.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
CFD-based design-oriented software for steady/unsteady aerodynamic loads for Aeroelastic/Aeroservoelastic shape design of flight vehicles is still non-existent, leading to a gap in every current flight vehicle MDO capability. NASA has been working for years to develop a universal MDO system that would cover both sizing and shape optimization and would include integration with advanced structures, CFD aerodynamics, and controls. The proposed development aims at providing an expedient CFD-based aerodynamic computation capability for rapid evaluation of static and dynamic Aeroelastic/Aeroservoelastic constraints (such as flutter and gust response) and their sensitivities and approximations for flight vehicle design. This development will enhance NASA's flight vehicle MDO system developments with capability for generating Aeroelastic/Aeroservoelastic sensitivity and constraints. It will support design studies of practically every category of flight vehicles, including blended wing body, joined-wings, supersonic transports, morphing aircraft, truss and strut braced wings, space planes, RLVs, Mars planes, and any revolutionary concept pursued.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The proposed design-oriented software (ZEUS-DO) will become the unique and the only CFD-based Aeroelastic / Aeroservoelastic-Aerodynamic tool for shape sensitivity, uncertainty evaluation, and shape optimization of flight vehicles. ZEUS-DO will provide design-oriented aerodynamics for Aeroelastic / Aeroservoelastic constraints and their sensitivities and approximations throughout the full Mach number and frequency ranges. It will be adopted by the aerospace industry for MDO of a wide class of aerospace vehicles: UAVs/UCAVs, supersonic business jets and transports, advanced transonic transports, fighter aircraft, hypervelocity missiles and winged projectiles (with optimized fin/canard/wing). It has the potential to be adopted by, in addition to flutter and loads departments, conceptual design and configuration development departments of airplane manufacturers nationally and world-wide. With its shape sensitivity and robust approximations capability for aerodynamic and aeroservoelastic behavior functions it will also be potentially used for design "what-if" studies and probabilistic systems analyses.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Airframe Controls-Structures Interaction (CSI) Launch and Flight Vehicle Modular Interconnects Structural Modeling and Tools