Multi-fidelity design of stiffened composite panel with a crack

Crack propagation is an important concern in the design of aircraft composite fuselage and wing panels. However, numerical simulation of crack propagation is computationally expensive. This work proposes combining high-fidelity analysis model with low-fidelity model to calculate the crack propagation constraint in the design optimization process. Correction response surfaces are employed to relate the high-fidelity models to the low-fidelity models. Four different forms of correction response surface methods are explored and their prediction capabilities are compared. The multi-fidelity approach is found to be more accurate than single-fidelity response surface method at the same computational cost.