Driven by the need to reduce weight, there is a clear trend toward greater use of composites in all-new aircraft. In this application note, engineers optimized the transmission loss of an aircraft fuselage composite panel. They used Optimus to automate and direct vibro-acoustic simulations using MSC Nastran & LMS Virtual.Lab Acoustics.

Through deterministic optimization performed with Optimus, a 5dB increase in panel transmission loss was realized. Using a probabilistic approach, the engineers further improved the reliability of the panel design from 3σ to 4σ level without any transmission loss penalty.

Easily automate the simulation process

Optimus easily captures and successfully automates the vibro-acoustics simulations involving MSC Nastran & LMS Virtual.Lab Acoustics, delivering a repeatable simulation process. It frees the engineer from repetitive administration tasks, and delivers the information that is needed to gain deeper engineering insights.

Maximize panel transmission loss

Using Optimus powerful optimization algorithms, engineers can quickly identify an optimum design that maximizes panel transmission loss while fulfilling the imposed constraint on maximum mass. This results in a design that delivers a 5dB transmission loss increase. An posteriori reliability assessment of this optimum design allows to quantify the impact of tolerances in order to verify what reliability level can be achieved with respect to the mass constraint.

Improve reliability level of the panel design

To improve the reliability level of the panel design, the panel was then optimized using a probabilistic approach. Without any transmission loss penalty, the reliability of the panel design improved from 3σ to 4σ level.

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