Development of an aerodynamic surrogate model for conceptual supersonic aircraft design based on DLR TAU simulations

Abstract

This paper focuses on drag estimation in cruise flight for civil supersonic aircraft. A comparison of simple conceptual design methods applied to several reference aircraft shows relatively large differences in drag estimation. For this reason, another approach is needed. Therefore, the buildup of an aerodynamic surrogate model based on Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations is performed. In detail, the process chain including CAD model generation, mesh generation and computational flow simulation (CFD) with the DLR TAU code is described. Furthermore, the integration of the process chain into the DLR Surrogate Modeling for AeRo Data Toolbox Python Package (SMARTy) is presented. With the help of SMARTy, an aerodynamic surrogate model is created. In the end, an example optimization is performed and analyzed based on a Concorde-like wing-fuselage geometry.