Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Techniques Based On Control Theory

Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Techniques Based on Control Theory

Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Techniques Based on Control Theory

This document serves as a final technical report for the AFOSR award F49620-95-1-0259. It reviews the formulation and application of optimization techniques based on control theory for aerodynamic shape design in viscous compressible flow. The theory is applied to a system defined by the partial differential equations of the flow, with the boundary shape acting as the control. The Frechet derivative of the cost function is determined via the solution of an adjoint partial differential equation, and the boundary shape is then modified in a direction of descent. This process is repeated until an optimum solution is approached. Each design cycle requires the numerical solution of both the flow and the adjoint equations, leading to a computational cost roughly equal to the cost of two flow solutions. Representative results are presented for viscous optimization of transonic wing-body combinations.

Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of Wing and Wing-Body Configurations Using Control Theory

This paper describes the implementation of optimization techniques based on control theory for wing and wing-body design. In previous studies it was shown that control theory could be used to devise an effective optimization procedure for airfoils and wings in which the shape and the surrounding body-fitted mesh are both generated analytically, and the control is the mapping function. Recently, the method has been implemented for both potential flows and flows governed by the Euler equations using an alternative formulation which employs numerically generated grids, so that it can more easily be extended to treat general configurations. Here results are presented both for the optimization of a swept wing using an analytic mapping, and for the optimization of wing and wing-body configurations using a general mesh. Reuther, James and Jameson, Antony Ames Research Center NAS2-13721...