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An application of SQP and Ada to the structural optimisation of aircraft wings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2016

M. C. Bartholomew-Biggs
M. C. Bartholomew-Biggs*
Affiliation:
Numerical Optimisation Centre, Hatfield Polytechnic, Hatfield
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Summary

Two versions of the Sequential Quadratic Programming technique for constrained optimisation are described and used to solve some minimum weight design calculations for aircraft wings. The problems and the solution methods are described and discussed in some detail: but the main feature of the work is the use of the programming language Ada for writing the necessary software. Some features of the language are illustrated which appear to be valuable for many kinds of numerical computation. In particular, it is also shown that Ada facilitates the calculation of the partial derivatives of function and constraint expressions which are required in optimisation calculations but which are often quite difficult to obtain in practice.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 93 , Issue 929 , November 1989 , pp. 344 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1989 

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References

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