Optimal design of eVTOLs for urban mobility using analytical target cascading (ATC)

Chinthoju, Prajwal Kumar

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117850 Copy

Description

Title

Optimal design of eVTOLs for urban mobility using analytical target cascading (ATC)

Author(s)

Chinthoju, Prajwal Kumar

Issue Date

2022-12-09

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Allison, James T

Department of Study

Industrial&Enterprise Sys Eng

Discipline

Systems & Entrepreneurial Engr

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

eVTOL, ATC, MDO

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the capability of Analytical Target Cascading (ATC) for optimizing large scale engineering design optimization problems. Multidisciplinary Optimization (MDO) techniques have a subject of immense interest in the past few decades because of their ability to generate optimal designs for complex system of systems. Monolithic MDO methods are one category of MDO methods that pose the optimization problem as a single optimization problem. These methods are effective in generating an optimal design, but it can be challenging to implement these methods at an organizational level in engineering design practice. Meanwhile, distributed MDO methods that decompose the problem into different sub optimization problems offer additional modularity and flexibility required for implementation at an organizational level. Analytical target cascading (ATC) is one such distributed MDO method that most closely emulates a hierarchical organization structure. The problem of designing of an eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle) was chosen to evaluate the performance of ATC because of its relevance to the future urban mobility solution space and because the design of eVTOLs involves optimization of several subsystems that are strongly coupled. The first part of this thesis focuses on the implementation and analysis of the results generated by ATC with respect to eVTOL design optimization. In the later part of this thesis, we set to lay out some of the general advantages of using distributed MDO methods over Monolithic MDO methods, as well as situations where the latter is more beneficial. In the final chapter, aspects involving computational expense and human factors effort are discussed to explore a set of cases where distributed MDO methods can be advantageous in engineering practice.

Graduation Semester

2022-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Prajwal Chinthoju

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