Rotor blade aerodynamic shape optimization based on high-efficient optimization method

Abstract

In order to design a high-performance rotor, a high-efficient optimization method is established by coupling Kriging model and sequential quadratic programming with high-accuracy computational fluid dynamics method. In order to obtain the global optimal design point, the initial blade shape is optimized by using the Kriging model coupled with genetic algorithm based on the baseline rotor blade (Helishape 7A rotor). After that, the modified sequential quadratic programming method is employed to search the final blade shape based on the initial blade shape deeply. In the optimal process, the regions of design variables are restricted considering rotor dynamic characteristics. As a result, a new shape of rotor blade with characters of nonlinear twist, variational chord length, complex swept, and anhedral distributions is obtained. Compared with the baseline rotor, blade-tip vortex of the final optimized rotor is significantly weakened, the figure of merit of the final optimized rotor increases about 3.42%, and the peak of sound pressure decreases about 16.9%. At the same time, it is demonstrated that the final optimized rotor has better forward flight characteristics.