Objective The Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) underwater glider is prone to structural damage during the lifting process. This study seeks to ensure its structural safety and achieve the goal of lightweight design by optimizing the internal pressure-resistant cabin fixing bracket.

Methods A multi-fidelity data-driven optimization method is adopted and combined with the structural parametric modeling method and finite element method to carry out the structural design of the fixing bracket. High and low fidelity numerical models of the bracket structure are established, and a multi-fidelity data-driven optimization method based on the hierarchical Kriging model is proposed, on which basis a fully automatic optimization design framework for the cabin fixing frame is constructed and used to complete the optimization design.

Results While ensuring structural safety, the mass of the optimized cabin fixing bracket is reduced by 16.4%. Compared with the particle swarm optimization algorithm, the proposed optimization design method can reduce computational costs by 75% while obtaining the same level of optimization design results, greatly improving the efficiency of optimization design.

Conclusion The results of this study can provide an efficient optimization design approach for the structural design of pressure-resistant cabin fixing brackets for BWB underwater gliders.