Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Using Control Theory


Book Description

Abstract: "Aerodynamic shape design has long persisted as a difficult scientific challenge due [sic] its highly nonlinear flow physics and daunting geometric complexity. However, with the emergence of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) it has become possible to make accurate predictions of flows which are not dominated by viscous effects. It is thus worthwhile to explore the extension of CFD methods for flow analysis to the treatment of aerodynamic shape design. Two new aerodynamic shape design methods are developed which combine existing CFD technology, optimal control theory, and numerical optimization techniques. Flow analysis methods for the potential flow equation and the Euler equations form the basis of the two respective design methods. In each case, optimal control theory is used to derive the adjoint differential equations, the solution of which provides the necessary gradient information to a numerical optimization method much more efficiently then [sic] by conventional finite differencing. Each technique uses a quasi-Newton numerical optimization algorithm to drive an aerodynamic objective function toward a minimum. An analytic grid perturbation method is developed to modify body fitted meshes to accommodate shape changes during the design process. Both Hicks-Henne perturbation functions and B-spline control points are explored as suitable design variables. The new methods prove to be computationally efficient and robust, and can be used for practical airfoil design including geometric and aerodynamic constraints. Objective functions are chosen to allow both inverse design to a target pressure distribution and wave drag minimization. Several design cases are presented for each method illustrating its practicality and efficiency. These include non-lifting and lifting airfoils operating at both subsonic and transonic conditions."




The Variational Method for Aerodynamic Optimization Using the Navier-Stokes Equations


Book Description

This report describes the formulation of an aerodynamic shape design methodology using a compressible viscous flow model based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations. The aerodynamic shape is described by a set of geometrical design variables. The design problem is formulated as an optimization problem stated in terms of an aerodynamic objective functional which has to be minimized. The design scheme employs a gradient based optimization algorithm in order to obtain the optimum values of the design variables. The gradient of the aerodynamic functional with respect to the design variables is computed by means of the variational method, which requires the solution of an adjoint problem. The formulation of the adjoint problem is described which leads to a set of adjoint equations and boundary conditions. Using the flow variables and the adjoint variables, an expression for the gradient has been constructed. Computational results are presented for an inverse problem of an airfoil. It will be shown that, starting from an initial geometry of the NACA 0012 airfoil, the target pressure distribution and geometry of a best fit of the RAE 2822 airfoil in a transonic flow condition has been reconstructed successfully.







MEGADESIGN and MegaOpt - German Initiatives for Aerodynamic Simulation and Optimization in Aircraft Design


Book Description

This volume contains results of the German CFD initiative MEGADESIGN which combines CFD development activities from DLR, universities and aircraft industry. Based on the DLR flow solvers FLOWer and TAU the main objectives of the four-years project is to ensure the prediction accuracy with a guaranteed error bandwidth for certain aircraft configurations at design conditions, to reduce the simulation turn-around time for large-scale applications significantly, to improve the reliability of the flow solvers for full aircraft configurations in the complete flight regime, to extend the flow solvers to allow for multidisciplinary simulations and to establish numerical shape optimization as a vital tool within the aircraft design process. This volume highlights recent improvements and enhancements of the flow solvers as well as new developments with respect to aerodynamic and multidisciplinary shape optimization. Improved numerical simulation capabilities are demonstrated by several industrial applications.




Recent Development of Aerodynamic Design Methodologies


Book Description

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has made remarkable progress in the last two decades and is becoming an important, if not inevitable, analytical tool for both fundamental and practical fluid dynamics research. The analysis of flow fields is important in the sense that it improves the researcher's understanding of the flow features. CFD analysis also indirectly helps the design of new aircraft and/or spacecraft. However, design methodologies are the real need for the development of aircraft or spacecraft. They directly contribute to the design process and can significantly shorten the design cycle. Although quite a few publications have been written on this subject, most of the methods proposed were not used in practice in the past due to an immature research level and restrictions due to the inadequate computing capabilities. With the progress of high-speed computers, the time has come for such methods to be used practically. There is strong evidence of a growing interest in the development and use of aerodynamic inverse design and optimization techniques. This is true, not only for aerospace industries, but also for any industries requiring fluid dynamic design. This clearly shows the matured engineering need for optimum aerodynamic shape design methodologies. Therefore, it seems timely to publish a book in which eminent researchers in this area can elaborate on their research efforts and discuss it in conjunction with other efforts.




Simulation-driven Aerodynamic Design Using Variable-fidelity Models


Book Description

Computer simulations is a fundamental tool of the design process in many engineering disciplines including aerospace engineering. However, although high-fidelity numerical models are accurate, they can be computationally expensive with evaluation time for a single design as long as hours, days or even weeks. Simulation-driven design using conventional optimization techniques may be therefore prohibitive.This book explores the alternative: performing computationally efficient design using surrogate-based optimization, where the high-fidelity model is replaced by its computationally cheap but still reasonably accurate representation: a surrogate. The emphasis is on physics-based surrogates. Application-wise, the focus is on aerodynamics and the methods and techniques described in the book are demonstrated using aerodynamic shape optimization cases. Applications in other engineering fields are also demonstrated.State-of-the-art techniques and a depth of coverage never published before make this a unique and essential book for all researchers working in aerospace and other engineering areas and dealing with optimization, computationally expensive design problems, and simulation-driven design.







Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of Complex Aircraft Configurations Via an Adjoint Formulation


Book Description

Abstract: "This work describes the implementation of optimization techniques based on control theory for complex aircraft configurations. Here control theory is employed to derive the adjoint differential equations, the solution of which allows for a drastic reduction in computational costs over previous design methods [13, 12, 43, 38]. In our earlier studies [19, 20, 22, 23, 39, 25, 40, 41, 42] it was shown that this method could be used to devise effective optimization procedures for airfoils, wings and wing-bodies subject to either analytic or arbitrary meshes. Design formulations for both potential flows and flows governed by the Euler equations have been demonstrated, showing that such methods can be devised for various governing equations [39, 25]. In our most recent works [40, 42] the method was extended to treat wing-body configurations with a large number of mesh points, verifying that significant computational savings can be gained for practical design problems. In this paper the method is extended for the Euler equations to treat complete aircraft configurations via a new multiblock implementation. New elements include a multiblock-multigrid flow solver, a multiblock-multigrid adjoint solver, and a multiblock mesh perturbation scheme. Two design examples are presented in which the new method is used for the wing redesign of a transonic business jet."




Impact of Turbulence Models and Shape Parameterization on Robust Aerodynamic Shape Optimization


Book Description

"Aerodynamic design optimization is typically performed at fixed flight conditions, without considering the variation and uncertainty in operating conditions. The objective of robust aerodynamic optimization is to design an aerodynamic configuration, which will keep its optimum performance under varying conditions such as the speed of aircraft. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the impact of turbulence models used in RANS simulations on the 2-D airfoil and 3-D wing designs obtained with gradient-based deterministic and robust optimization in transonic, viscous, turbulent flows. The main contribution of this research to the aerodynamic design area was to quantify the impact of turbulence models (Spalart-Allmaras and Menter's Shear Stress Transport) and shape parameterization techniques (Hicks-Henne bump functions, B-Spline curves and Free-Form Deformation) on the computational cost, optimal shape, and its performance obtained with robust optimization under uncertainty. The effect of changing the relative weight of mean drag reduction and robustness measures used in the objective function was also investigated for the 3-D robust design. The robustness of the final design obtained with stochastic optimization approach was demonstrated over the Mach number range considered as the uncertain operating condition in this study. The results of the 2-D study show that the shape parameterization technique has a larger impact on the computational cost than the turbulence models in both deterministic and robust design. The results of the 3-D study show that the effect of the weight distribution in the objective function is more significant than the effect of turbulence model on the final design obtained with robust optimization below the design Mach number value. In general, robust optimization tends to reduce the impact of the turbulence model selection on the optimum shape and performance over the uncertain Mach number range considered, whereas the effect of the turbulence model becomes significant at off-design conditions for the optimal shapes obtained with deterministic design"--Abstract, page iii.