DOI: https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2012.44
Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/731
Date of Award
5-2012
Degree Name
MS in Aerospace Engineering
Department/Program
Aerospace Engineering
Advisor
David Marshall
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.