A Convex Optimization Approach to Thin Airfoil Design Using Cubic Splines
Daniel Berkenstock, Juan Jose Alonso, Laurent Lessard · AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum · 2023
View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2023-0651.vid Convex optimization offers an attractive approach to the physical design of aerospace vehicles due to its ability to quickly identify global optima to relatively complex problems. Building on previous work, we show a significant improvement in optimal supersonic drag coefficient for airfoils parameterized by cubic splines, versus cubic polynomials. In particular we derive convex expressions for the supersonic lift and drag coefficients of thin airfoils expressed as cubic splines, as well as subsonic lift and moment coefficients for the same. We compare the results of globally optimal designs parameterized by cubic polynomials and cubic splines, showing improvements in drag performance of approximately 20-30%. These designs are computed typically in single digit seconds using commodity hardware and open source software tools.