SUAVE: An Open-Source Environment Enabling Unconventional Vehicle Designs through Higher Fidelity

SUAVE is a conceptual level aircraft design environment that incorporates multiple information sources to analyze unconventional configurations. This work incorporates higherfidelity tools to build upon previous efforts where SUAVE analyzed and optimized several types of aircraft using low-fidelity methods. This is done in an automated way that incorporates three external programs. The first is OpenVSP, which is used for geometry creation, area calculation, and surface meshing. The second is Gmsh, which uses these surface meshes to create volume meshes. The third is SU2, which is used to run Euler CFD simulations. Wetted areas from OpenVSP and lift from SU2 is used to enhance SUAVE’s aerodynamic analyses. We present results for a verification case with the Onera M6 wing, then present mission results with a conventional narrow-body airliner, a supersonic jet, and a blended wing body.