Perspectives on aerodynamic design optimization
Joaquim R. R. A. Martins
Abstract
CFD-based aircraft design optimization has matured significantly in the last few years thanks to improvements in CFD solvers, mesh deformation, sensitivity computation, and optimization tools. We review our recent developments for each of these components, and present open-source tools made available for aerodynamic shape optimization. A variety of applications is presented, including the optimization of a supercritical airfoil starting from a circle, a web application that optimizes airfoils within a few seconds, aircraft aerodynamic and aerostructural optimization, and aeropropulsive optimization. We also review our experience with solving the Aerodynamic Design Optimization Discussion Group (ADODG) benchmarks and other problems in aerodynamic shape optimization. Among the ADODG benchmarks, we focus on the RANS-based problems and discuss some of the issues encountered, including the comparison between Euler and RANS results, and design space multimodality. The availability of these benchmarks and the open-source tools is expected to enable further studies and benchmarks in CFD-based aerodynamic design optimization and MDO.