Open MDAO: The Next Generation Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization (MDAO) Open Source Framework(LEW-18550-1)

OpenMDAO is the initial version of the next generation Multidisciplinary Design Analysis and Optimization (MDAO) open source framework. OpenMDAO is the open source framework developed by NASA that will be accessible via an open source website to reach the entire broad based MDAO community to facilitate advancing the science of MDAO. MDAO covers a vast set of capabilities, including a flexible framework and state of the art discipline codes. This innovation relates specifically to the framework. OpenMDAO provides the core software infrastructure to integrate multidisciplinary variable fidelity tools and enable design, analysis, and optimization of complex systems. Currently, OpenMDAO functionalities include component linking, data passing, driver interface, and lazy evaluation. This initial basic capability of the framework is sufficient for users to run and optimize their analysis after they integrate their specific component codes. As OpenMDAO evolves, the following capabilities will be included in the framework: interprocess communications, error handling, user interfaces, geometry application program interfaces (APIs), plug-in interfaces, utilities to wrap tools, versioning, and parallel processing support. To be clear, the framework will enable the integration of, but will not include: optimizers, solvers, visualization tools, custom data types, script components, and discipline codes. AEROSPACE: To meet the present and future economic and environmental challenges facing air transportation, aviation design must expand its focus from today's conventional "wing-body-tail" aircraft to more advanced vehicles. The ability to design revolutionary aircraft to improve mobility and air transport efficiency is of paramount importance to the national economy, along with reducing our environmental impact and supporting national defense. Technologies such as the one disclosed here incorporate progressively more sophisticated computational models and methods, enabling future aircraft designs today.