Patent ID: 7912681

Claim:
A method for designing a flight vehicle, comprising: determining a preferred aerodynamic shape of a structure of the vehicle; modifying the preferred aerodynamic shape based upon constraints; and determining, using aerodynamic computational fluid dynamics, limit loading conditions for the modified aerodynamic shape, comprising: preparing a 3-D, geometrical model of an outside mold line of the structure; developing a 3-D, aerodynamic computational fluid dynamics model from the 3-D, geometrical model; running a first aerodynamic computational fluid dynamics analysis using the 3-D, computational fluid dynamic model to predict air loads on the structure; analyzing the structure based upon the air loads on the structure predicted by the first aerodynamic computational fluid dynamics analysis; determining a critical load case for each component in the structure based on the predicted air loads from the first aerodynamic computational fluid dynamics analysis; running a second aerodynamic computational fluid dynamics analysis using the 3-D, computational fluid dynamic model for each critical load case to determine critical air loads on the structure; and mapping the determined critical air loads on the structure to a finite element model; wherein the critical load case for each component in the structure is defined in terms of at least one of airspeed, angle of attack, and sideslip wherein the structure is further analyzed in a yaw rate maneuver at speed increments from maximum horizontal velocity with a predefined sideslip envelope, further wherein if the aircraft is unable to attain the sideslip envelope, a maximum possible sideslip envelope is used.