Visualization methodologies in aircraft design

This paper reviews aspects of low dimensional visualization methods, which are used currently in aerodynamic design and how these can be extended to higher dimensions. The shortcomings in current visualization methods are described and methods introduced which extend other visualization methods to this application. These simplify complex ideas into a small number of plots that the designer can understand and so use to gain insight into design. In general these take the form of maps which reduce the problem dimensionality from 5 and 8D to just 2 dimensions. This enables screening and optimization to be performed visually. Much of this is made possible only because the large amounts of data required for high dimensional design space appreciation are provided by response surface method technology. A modus operandi is proposed and the possibilities for visualization as an aid to understanding design are illustrated via aircraft aerodynamic design. Application to a sample problem that deals with a military aircraft optimization problem in 2, 5, 8 and 14 dimensions is discussed