Recent developments of NeoCass the open source suite for structural sizing and aeroelastic analysis

This paper presents the Matlab-based suite called NeoCASS (Next generation Conceptual Aero-Structural Sizing Suite), developed at the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Politecnico di Milano to be used especially in conceptual design phase. It enables the creation of efficient low-order, medium fidelity models particularly suitable for structural sizing, aeroelastic analysis and optimization at the conceptual design level. The whole methodology is based upon the integration of geometry construction, aerodynamic and structural analysis codes that combine depictive, computational, analytical, and semi-empirical methods, validated in an aircraft design environment. Originally developed in 2010 inside the FP7 EU funded project SimSAC as a module of the CEASIOM environment, since 2012 NeoCASS is a standalone code distributed under the open source scheme. After more than six years of development, and more than 800 downloads, this paper presents the most recent advances in the implementation of a unified aeroelastic and flight mechanics formulation.