Potential flow pressure matching is a classical inverse design aerodynamic problem. The resulting loss of regularity during the optimization poses challenges for shape optimization with normal perturbation of the surface mesh nodes. Smoothness is not enforced by the parameterization but by a proper choice of the scalar product based on the shape Hessian, which is derived in local coordinates fo...

Optimization problems in many industrial applications are very hard to solve. Many examples of them can be found in the design of aeronautical systems. In this field, the designer is frequently faced with the problem of considering not only a single design objective, but several of them, i.e., the designer needs to solve a Multi-Objective Optimization Problem (MOP). In aeronautical systems desi...

We present an optimization algorithm for the study of induced drag minimization, with applications to unconventional aircraft design. The algorithm is based on a discrete-adjoint formulation and uses an efficient parallel-Newton-Krylov solution strategy. We validate the optimizer by recovering an elliptical lift distribution using twist optimization; we believe this an important, and under-appr...

Abstract The blended-wing body is an aircraft configuration that has the potential to be more efficient than conventional large transport aircraft configurations with the same capability. However, the design of the blended-wing is challenging due to the tight coupling between aerodynamic performance, trim, and stability. Other design challenges include the nature and number of the design variab...

Adaptive morphing trailing edge wings have the potential to reduce the fuel burn of transport aircraft. In this paper, we quantify the aerodynamic performance benefits of a morphing trailing using aerodynamic design optimization. The aerodynamic model solves the Reynolds-averaged Navier– Stokes equations with a Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model. A gradient-based optimization algorithm is used i...

The purpose of this work is to use level set topology optimization to improve the design of a representative wing box structure for the NASA common research model. The objective is to minimize the total compliance of the structure under aerodynamic and body force loading, where the aerodynamic loading is coupled to the structural deformation. A taxi bump case was also considered, where only bod...

Abstract Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) based on structured coding have been proposed for aerodynamic optimization of wing design. Fractional factorial design is used to investigate interactions of the design variables to determine the appropriate coding structure for EAs in advance. The present EAs is applied to wing design problems where the wing shape is modeled using the parameter set for th...

Observations regarding the use of advanced computational uid dynamics (CFD) analysis, sensitivity analysis (SA), and design codes in gradient-based multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) re ect our perception of the interactions required of CFD and our experience in recent aerodynamic design optimization studies using CFD. Sample results from these latter studies are summarized for convent...