Determining the form of a body resulting in minimum heat flux, with laminar flow in the boundary layer

Abstract

The exact solution of the problem of determining the optimal body shape for which the total thermal flux will be minimal for high supersonic flow about the body involves both computational and theoretical difficulties. Therefore, at the present time wide use is made of the inverse method, based on comparing the thermal fluxes for bodies of various specified form [1, 2]. The results of such calculations cannot always replace the solution of the direct variational problem. Therefore it is advisable to consider the direct variational problem of determining the form of a body with minimal thermal flux by using the approximate Newton formula for finding the gasdynamic parameters at the edge of the boundary layer. This approach has been used in finding the form of the body of minimal drag in an ideal fluid [3–5] arid with account for friction [6], and also for determining the form of a thin two-dimensional profile with minimal thermal flux for given aerodynamic characteristics [7].