AERODYNAMIC SHAPE OPTIMIZATION OF AN UNDER-WING STORE USING GAPPY POD

Abstract

The primary objective of this research work was to develop preliminary designs of aircraft under-wing store geometry to achieve improved aerodynamic performance in the transonic/subsonic regime. In this work, both the geometry optimization and aerodynamic optimization have been performed for the targeted store. We first proposed a parametric geometry representation using B-spline curves along longitudinal cross sections, and rational Bézier curves along latitudinal cross sections. The geometry optimization is performed with nonlinear constraints on center of gravity location and controlled volume, to minimize the moment of the shape. The aerodynamic optimization is then realized using evolutionary algorithm, with Gappy POD surrogate model for fitness evaluation.