Aerodynamic Optimization for Cruise and High-Lift Configurations

Abstract

Within the next few years, numerical shape optimization based on high fidelity methods is likely to play a strategic role in future aircraft design. In this context, suitable tools have to be developed for solving aerodynamic shape optimization problems, and the adjoint approach -- which allows fast and accurate evaluations of the gradients with respect to the design parameters -- is seen as a promising strategy. Based on the unstructured RANS solver TAU, a continuous as well as a discrete adjoint have been developed and applied to cruise and high-lift configuration optimization problems. This paper describes investigations of planform optimizations for a flying wing transport aircraft with an Euler continuous adjoint method, the wing design of the DLR-F6 wing-body aircraft configuration and the flap and slat settings of the DLR-F11 high-lift wing-body aircraft with a viscous discrete adjoint method.