The Multi-point Optimization of Shock Control Bump with Constant-Lift Constraint Enhanced with Suction and Blowing for a Supercritical Airfoil

Abstract

Both shock control bump (SCB) and suction and blowing are flow control methods used to control the shock wave/boundary layer interaction (SWBLI) in order to reduce the resulting wave drag in transonic flows. A SCB uses a small local surface deformation to reduce the shock-wave strength, while suction decreases the boundary-layer thickness and blowing delays the flow separation. Here a multi-point optimization method under a constant-lift-coefficient constraint is used to find the optimum design of SCB and suction and blowing. These flow control methods are used separately or together on a RAE-2822 supercritical airfoil for a wide range of off-design transonic Mach numbers. The RANS flow equations are solved using Roe’s averages scheme and a gradient-based adjoint algorithm is used to find the optimum location and shape of all devices. It is shown that the simultaneous application of blowing and SCB (hybrid blowing/SCB) improves the average aerodynamic efficiency at off-design conditions by 18.2 % in comparison with the clean airfoil, while this increase is only 16.9 % for the hybrid suction/SCB. We have also studied the SWBLI and how the optimization algorithm makes the flow wave structure and interactions of the shock wave with the boundary layer favorable.