Automatic Design of Wing–Body–Nacelle Configurations for Minimum Drag

Abstract

A computational-fluid-dynamics-driven robust and accurate method for aerodynamic shape optimization, previously developed by the authors, is further enhanced by extending it to automatic multipoint design of wing–body–nacelle configurations. The shape is optimized for minimum drag at fixed lift subject to numerous geometrical and aerodynamical constraints. The method, which is driven by genetic algorithms and full Navier–Stokes computations combined with reduced-order models approach, is supported by massive multilevel parallelization. The applications include single- and multipoint aerodynamic designs for a transport-type aircraft configuration. For the considered class of shape optimizations, significant drag reduction in on- and off-design conditions has been achieved. It was also shown that the optimizations, which start from markedly different initial shapes, ultimately converge to optimum shapes very close one to one another. The paper demonstrates how automated techniques based on the developed method have now matured and provide an industrial strength solution.