Aero-Structural Wing Design Optimization Using High-Fidelity Sensitivity Analysis

摘要

This paper develops and implements a framework for the computation of coupled aero-structural sensitivities which are required for the design of aircraft where aeroelastic interactions are significant. All aero-structural sensitivities are computed using high-fidelity models of both the aerodynamics and the structure of the wing with a coupled-adjoint approach that uses single discipline sensitivity information to calculate the sensitivities of the coupled system. The sensitivities of drag with respect to a set of shape design variables are computed using the aero-structural adjoint method and compared with sensitivities given by the complex-step derivative approximation and finite-di erences. The aero-structural adjoint is shown to be both accurate and e cient, and to have a significant cost advantage when the gradient of a small number of functions with respect to a large number of design variables is needed. To demonstrate the usefulness of computing aero-structural sensitivities with the proposed method, results of two drag minimization problems with 190 shape design variables are presented. These results emphasize the importance of aero-structural coupling even in a conventional swept-wing design.