OpenMDAO RevHack 2020
RevHack is a reverse hackathon where the OM users propose problems to be solved and then the dev team tries to solve them! The primary dev team goal is to gain a better understanding of the use cases that users are struggling with, and to learn to see our framework through your eyes.
What you get out of it is two-fold:
- We solves some problems for you
- We go into detail about our thought process and justifications for how we solved them, so you can learn something about how we see things.
Problem Solutions
The ones we finished
- OpenAeroStruct+VSP to optimize an aircraft subject stability constraints
- eVTOL takeoff optimization with Dymos
- Nested optimizations
- Optimize an OpenMDAO model with CMA-ES optimizer
- Unsteady VLM simulation
The ones we didn't get to
- OpenAeroStruct+Dymos for aircraft trajectory optimization
- Integrate an OpenAeroStruct analysis into a Dymos trajectory analysis model (@shamsheersc19)
General solution approaches:
Over the course of solving the problems we noticed a few general themes that were worth discussing in more detail. These topics involve general model building practices and concepts, and don't deal with specific solutions.
- Building an OpenVSP Component -- Google Colab workbook that builds an OpenVSP component
- You don't have to use a driver! -- Exploit the parts you like, leave the parts you don't!
- Sub-problems -- They are pretty handy in some situations!
- How big should I make my components? --- How many lines of code should I aim for?
- Unsteady/transient analysis in OpenMDAO --- There is a right way, and some other right ways!