Integrated Propulsion–Aerodynamics–Trajectory–Cost Design Optimization for High-Speed, Long-Range Rocket-Boosted Vehicles

Abstract

To address the strong coupling among engine geometry, propulsion performance, aerodynamic response, flight trajectory, and manufacturing cost, this study establishes an integrated propulsion–aerodynamics–trajectory–cost design framework for high-speed, long-range rocket-boosted vehicles. Six chamber and nozzle geometric parameters are selected as design variables. An engine performance model is first used to calculate propulsion responses, including thrust, chamber pressure, and specific impulse. A mass and configuration update model then transfers the effects of engine parameter variations to the overall vehicle characteristics, while aerodynamic data and a two-dimensional point-mass trajectory model are introduced to obtain mission-level indicators, including maximum velocity, maximum altitude, and range. An existing manufacturing cost decomposition model for solid rocket motors is extended by coupling the cost response with component masses, geometric dimensions, and parameter-update relationships, thereby enabling the simultaneous evaluation of mission performance and manufacturing cost within the integrated computational chain. Kriging surrogate models are constructed for rapid prediction of the coupled system responses, entropy-weighted TOPSIS is used to screen feasible candidates, and SQP is employed for continuous constrained refinement. Compared with the baseline design, the comprehensive evaluation index increases from 0.4861 to 0.6110. The maximum velocity, maximum altitude, and range increase by 8.29%, 26.81%, and 21.24%, respectively, while the manufacturing cost increases by only 0.48%. The evaluation index is also 15.68% higher than that of the engine-level optimized design. These results demonstrate that the integrated consideration of propulsion, aerodynamics, trajectory, and manufacturing cost improves mission-level performance–cost trade-offs and provides a system-level design approach for mission-oriented and cost-aware solid rocket motor development.