Design of Experiments Using Response Surface Methods to Optimize Simulated Reentry Trajectories

摘要

Due to the costly nature of performing flight tests of hypersonic vehicles, maximizing resource allocation is an extremely important part of system development. While Modelling and Simulation activities may help to reduce the number of actual flights that must be performed, computational costs can also be prohibitive. The test planner requires methods to reduce the number of simulation runs, while maximizing useful data output. Using modern Design of Experiments methods a test plan can be developed which minimizes simulation runs and enables determination of optimum initial flight conditions in order to satisfy desired flight parameters. The Common Aero Vehicle (CAV), a generic hypersonic aircraft, is an excellent case for the current design study. Reentry trajectories are simulated using the U.S.