An Inverse Design Method for Supersonic Airfoils

<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>

Name thesis:degree_name

MS in Aerospace Engineering

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Skare, Steven Edward

Contributors dc:contributor

• David Marshall

• Inverse Design
• Class-Shape Transformation
• Supersonic
• Aerospace Engineering

Identifier

10.15368/theses.2012.44

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.calpoly.edu:theses-1773