Data-driven reduced order modeling for aerodynamic flow predictions

Abstract

During each aircraft program a vast amount of aerodynamics data has to be generated to judge performance, structural loads as well as handling qualities. Within the past years the usage of computational fluid dynamics has significantly increased providing accurate insights into aircraft behaviour at early design stages and therefore at least partially enabled the mitigation of costly design changes. However, fully relying on high fidelity aerodynamic data is still computational prohibitive. Hence, data-driven models have gained an increasing attention in recent years. These methods not only provide continuous models but also enable the inclusion of highly accurate aerodynamic results in time-critical environments. This paper aims at applying deep learning techniques to derive such models and compare them to state of the art reduced order modeling techniques. In particular, three deep learning methods, a Multi-layer perceptron for distribution predictions, a Multi-layer perceptron for pointwise predictions and an Autoencoder coupled with an interpolation technique are compared to Proper Orthogonal Decomposition and Isomap with latent space interpolation. For all methods an efficient methodology to determine hyperparameters is outlined and applied. Results are presented for an Airbus provided XRF1 dataset which includes surface pressure distributions at various Mach numbers and angles of attack.