Preference-Based Decision Support for Quay Wall Assessment: Determining the preferred configuration of structural adjustments using the optimisation method of Preferendus

In response to the European Commission's initiative to shift freight transport from road to inland waterways, there is a need to expand the capacity of inland ports to accommodate larger cargo ships. This expansion requires lowering the water bottom, which will increase the forces exerted on the quay walls. The quay walls should therefore be...

Preference and Performance Based Design & Decision Systems in Offshore & Dredging Engineering: A multi-objective design/decision optimisation approach based on sound mathematical modelling of both preference and physical design performance functions

Why do engineers often design what people don't want? And why do people often want solutions that are not feasible? This is because the current design and decision support optimisation methodologies are one-sided and ignore or fail to capture the dynamic interaction between people's preferences (desirability) and technical assets' performance ...

Prototype X: A Cost-Based Design Optimization of an Upper Stage Liquid Propulsion Module with Green-Storable Propellants

This paper investigates the cost­-benefit, payload performance and technical feasibility of green storable upper stage design concepts on their potential implementation with existing launchers. Since the demand for reliable, safe, and cost­-effective transport to space is growing, it is necessary to find sustain­able rocket propellant solutions....

Minimizing the climate impact of the next generation aircraft using novel climate functions for aircraft design

The aircraft’s environmental performance on fleet level is so far completely decoupled from the design process. The climate impact from aviation arising from non-CO2 effects are largely independent from CO2 emissions, but rather depend on the atmospheric state. Previously complex climate-chemistry models were used to evaluate the non-CO2...

Morphing wing design using integrated and distributed trailing edge morphing

The presented study investigates the design and development of an autonomous morphing wing concept developed in the scope of the SmartX project, which aims to demonstrate in-flight performance optimisation with active morphing. To progress this goal, a novel distributed morphing concept with six translation induced camber morphing trailing...

Design and optimisation of a type IV composite pressure vessel

Due to an ever-growing demand for sustainable transportation, there is an increased need for the development of hydrogen as an energy carrier. Based on mass, hydrogen contains about three times as much energy as conventional gasoline. However, the volumetric energy density, which is the amount of energy per volume unity, is much lower for...

Response Surface Based Design Optimization of a Low-Pressure Microresistojet's Heat Exchanger

A Low-Pressure Micro-resistojet (LPM) is a type of in-space electrothermal propulsion system for satellites that works by heating low-pressure (50 to 300 Pa) fluid flowing through microchannels/slots (typically <1 mm diameter) using resistive heating elements like thin-film Molybdenum. This thesis delineates a response surface based method to...

An optimisation strategy for the (in- and out-of-plane) resistance of steel beams in demountable composite floor systems

Demountable and reusable composite floor systems enable the decoupling between the use of construction materials and economic activity, and hereby contribute to the sustainability of the built environment. Efficient material use through optimised cross-section design reduces construction material demand. Demountable steel-concrete composite...

Designing packaging lines from a Modular Engineering perspective

Design and Analysis of an Installed Pusher Propeller with Boundary Layer Inflow

Boundary Layer Ingestion is an integrated propulsion concept in which a propulsor operates in boundary layer flow instead of the free streamflow with the goal to reduce the fuel flow for a given operating condition. The objective of this thesis is to obtain a better understanding of the power benefit of an installed pusher propeller at the aft...

Interactive distributed optimisation for multidisciplinary design

This paper presents the development of a multidisciplinary optimisation system for the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. The system consists of two major components, namely a multidisciplinary optimisation framework and a distributed cloud-based analysis framework. The former utilises an interactive optimisation search...

Conceptual Design Automation: Abstraction complexity reduction by feasilisation and knowledge engineering

In order to keep innovating, engineers are working more and more with engineering software, providing them a way to cut away their routine and repetitive activities. Computer aided design and simulation software are for instance considered standard tools in most engineering companies. Today, to solve complex engineering design problems,...

Service oriented concurrent engineering with hybrid teams using a multi-agent task environment

Robust Design Optimisation by mode FRONTIER

This presentation deals with industrial applications, in aeronautic and turbomachinery fields, of multi-objective and robust design optimisation, through the utilisation of the multi-objective optimisation and design environment modeFrontier. This code allows the easy process integration of any CAD/CAE commercial tool, and drives the designer in...

Efficient Unstructured Hybrid Meshing and its Quality Improvement for Design Optimisation of Turbomachinery

Automatic robust unstructured hybrid meshing is indispensable for the success in design optimisation. In addition, it is important to maintain the mesh quality for deformation of geometry throughout the optimisation process for the reliability of optimal design. Mesh adaptation is useful to capture the flow feature which can highly affect flow...

The use of automatic differentiation for adjoint CFD codes

Optimisation of aerospace designs uses the linear gradients of the minimised objective functionals with respect to the specified design variables. These gradients can be computed using a linearised version (or the adjoint equivalent) of the CFD code that outputs the original objective functionals. The task of generating linear or adjoint code...

An Urban Decision Room Based on Mathematical Optimisation - A pilot study supporting complex urban decision questions

Dynamics and design optimisation of offshore wind energy conversion systems