Surrogate modeling for the main landing gear doors of an airbus passenger aircraft

Main Landing Gear Doors of commercial aircraft are affected by significant dynamic loads during flight, mainly due to the aerodynamic excitation. Thus, an accurate prediction early in the design results an important matter to select the optimal aerodynamic configuration. Therefore, a significant budget is invested by manufacturers in order to test the aerodynamic performance by means of wind tunnel and flight testing. However, the high cost associated to these tests restricts the number of test cases that can be performed. This paper presents a new surrogate model for the unsteady aerodynamics characterized by wind tunnel testing, in order to predict the aerodynamic effect in previously untested conditions, and in this way, to allow a first stage exploration of new areas in the design space, without the need of expensive wind tunnel or flight testing. Experimental results within the Main Landing Gear Doors of an Airbus Long Range Passenger Aircraft are presented, showing the benefits of this methodology.