Development and application of a new design tool for aerospace structures

European aircraft industry demands for reduced development and operating costs, by 20% and 50% in the short and long term, respectively. The 3-year project Globales Tragverhalten (Global Structural Behaviour), which was finished 2003, contributed to this aim by reducing structural weight at safe design; it exploits considerable reserves in fuselage structures by taking the knowledge of the redistribution of internal structural loads into account. The Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems of DLR developed in that project in co-operation with Airbus Germany a new design tool for lightweight aerospace structures. This design tool has the capability to reduce structural weight automatically and was applied on one Airbus-A340 section. This paper explains the optimization concept of the design tool and gives some project results.