High fidelity computational modeling and optimization of complex engineering systems has the potential to allow engineers to produce more efficient designs with fewer unforeseen design modifications late in the design process. For transonic wing design, the simultaneous optimization of the aerodynamic shape and structural sizing yields significant fuel burn savings that can only be achieved with multidisciplinary optimization. Typically, optimizations attempt to improve the performance at a small number of representative operating conditions. However, the performance improvement may be obtained at the expense of reduced robustness or performance in other aspects of the design. In this paper, we investigate the effects of including operating conditions near the initial buffet onset boundary at both high Cl and high Mach number conditions. A series of aerostructural optimizations demonstrate the positive effect of including these off-design conditions on the buffet onset boundary of the optimized designs. A single point optimized design is able to reduce the fuel burn by 15.4% but with poor-off-design and buffet onset behavior. A multipoint optimization including conditions near the buffet onset, was able to reduce the fuel burn by 12.4%, improve the robustness near the on-design flight condition, and improve the buffet onset boundary.
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