Airfoil design is one of the most important aspects of aircraft design. Slight changes in airfoil geometry can lead to significant changes in a wide variety of aircraft performance metrics. Inverse design methods offer an efficient alternative to standard direct methods. The key to this design problem is to derive a direct relationship between changes in airfoil geometry and changes in pressure or velocity distributions. This relationship is then used to modify an initial airfoil and its pressure distribution to match a target pressure distribution, which is specified by design parameters. At this point, the engineer now has a final airfoil based off of the design requirements.
This paper attempts to provide a quick and easy inverse design method for a wide variety of supersonic scenarios. This is accomplished by using the class-shape transformation technique to parameterize airfoils during an iterative process. The robustness of the method is demonstrated through several distinct design cases including supersonic airfoils, unique geometries, and a Sears-Haack body.
","abstract_html":"<p>Airfoil design is one of the most important aspects of aircraft design. Slight changes in airfoil geometry can lead to significant changes in a wide variety of aircraft performance metrics. Inverse design methods offer an efficient alternative to standard direct methods. The key to this design problem is to derive a direct relationship between changes in airfoil geometry and changes in pressure or velocity distributions. This relationship is then used to modify an initial airfoil and its pressure distribution to match a target pressure distribution, which is specified by design parameters. At this point, the engineer now has a final airfoil based off of the design requirements.</p> <p>This paper attempts to provide a quick and easy inverse design method for a wide variety of supersonic scenarios. This is accomplished by using the class-shape transformation technique to parameterize airfoils during an iterative process. The robustness of the method is demonstrated through several distinct design cases including supersonic airfoils, unique geometries, and a Sears-Haack body. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Skare, Steven Edward"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MS in Aerospace Engineering","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Aerospace Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["David Marshall"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-05-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-05-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:17Z","subjects":["Inverse Design","Class-Shape Transformation","Supersonic","Aerospace Engineering"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10.15368/theses.2012.44"],"render_values":[{"text":"10.15368/theses.2012.44","href":"https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2012.44","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/731","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["David Marshall"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Skare, Steven Edward"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2012-05-30T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Aerospace Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MS in Aerospace Engineering"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Inverse Design","Class-Shape Transformation","Supersonic","Aerospace Engineering"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/731","10.15368/theses.2012.44"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Airfoil design is one of the most important aspects of aircraft design. Slight changes in airfoil geometry can lead to significant changes in a wide variety of aircraft performance metrics. Inverse design methods offer an efficient alternative to standard direct methods. The key to this design problem is to derive a direct relationship between changes in airfoil geometry and changes in pressure or velocity distributions. This relationship is then used to modify an initial airfoil and its pressure distribution to match a target pressure distribution, which is specified by design parameters. At this point, the engineer now has a final airfoil based off of the design requirements.
This paper attempts to provide a quick and easy inverse design method for a wide variety of supersonic scenarios. This is accomplished by using the class-shape transformation technique to parameterize airfoils during an iterative process. The robustness of the method is demonstrated through several distinct design cases including supersonic airfoils, unique geometries, and a Sears-Haack body.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["An Inverse Design Method for Supersonic Airfoils"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["David Marshall"],"dc:creator":["Skare, Steven Edward"],"dc:date.available":["2012-05-30T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Airfoil design is one of the most important aspects of aircraft design. Slight changes in airfoil geometry can lead to significant changes in a wide variety of aircraft performance metrics. Inverse design methods offer an efficient alternative to standard direct methods. The key to this design problem is to derive a direct relationship between changes in airfoil geometry and changes in pressure or velocity distributions. This relationship is then used to modify an initial airfoil and its pressure distribution to match a target pressure distribution, which is specified by design parameters. At this point, the engineer now has a final airfoil based off of the design requirements.
This paper attempts to provide a quick and easy inverse design method for a wide variety of supersonic scenarios. This is accomplished by using the class-shape transformation technique to parameterize airfoils during an iterative process. The robustness of the method is demonstrated through several distinct design cases including supersonic airfoils, unique geometries, and a Sears-Haack body.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/731","10.15368/theses.2012.44"],"dc:subject":["Inverse Design","Class-Shape Transformation","Supersonic","Aerospace Engineering"],"dc:title":["An Inverse Design Method for Supersonic Airfoils"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Aerospace Engineering"],"thesis:degree_name":["MS in Aerospace Engineering"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:17Z"}