Aerodynamic Design of Transonic Natural-Laminar-Flow (NLF) Wing via Surrogate-basedGlobal Optimization

Abstract

This paper aims to develop an efficient global optimization method for design of transonic natural-laminar-flow (NLF) airfoils and wings, based on high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver. The CFD solver features functionality of automatic transition prediction, by coupling Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the linear-stability-theory-based dual e N method for Tollmien-Schlichting and crossflow instabilities. An A320-sized transonic NLF wing with a laminar supercritical airfoil is designed for cruise condition at Mach=0.74, Re=20 million, CL=0.515. In order to further improve the cruise efficiency, this NLF wing is optimized at higher Mach number of 0.75 via an in-house surrogate-based optimizer. The optimization is formulated as a drag minimization problem with constraints on lift, pitching moment and geometric thickness. Through only 130 CFD evaluations, 12.1 counts drag reduction is obtained, while all constraints are strictly satisfied. Further study shows that the drag reduction is contributed by both of shock-wave weakening and laminar-flow extension. On suction side, the favorable pressure gradient is maintained while shock wave is weakened; on pressure side, the crossflow (CF) instability is effectively suppressed and thereby the laminar flow region is dramatically extended. The improvement of aerodynamic performance is observed not only at design point but also over a certain range of off-design lift coefficients.