Wing/Airfoil design & optimization

Wing/Airfoil optimization and design exploration

  • Low drag wing utilizing natural and laminar flow control
  • Three major instabilities that causing the flow on a wing to transition from laminar-to-turbulent:
    • Tollmien-Schlicting Instability(TSI)
    • Cross Flow Instability(CFI)
    • Attachment Line Instability (ALI)
  • HLFC and NLF wing optimization at subsonic conditions (𝑅𝑒=16 π‘šπ‘–π‘™π‘™π‘–π‘œπ‘›, π‘€π‘Žβ‰ˆ0.4Re=16 million, M_aβ‰ˆ0.4)Β§HLFC and NLF wing optimization at transonic conditions (𝑅𝑒=30 π‘šπ‘–π‘™π‘™π‘–π‘œπ‘›, π‘€π‘Žβ‰ˆ0.78Re=30 million, M_aβ‰ˆ0.78)
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NLF and HLFC wing optimization

  • To optimize HLFC airfoil for a minimum total drag, and explore the design space
    • Minimizing pressure drag
    • Maximizing laminar flow regions on both lower and upper surface
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conFLOW-3D

  • Conical Flow Optimization of Wing with 3D Correction
  • Multi-objective NSGA optimization (plot 1)
  • Mid-fidelity aerodynamic solver (MSES & VLM solvers)
  • Transition prediction utilizing Linear Stability Analysis (LST)
  • Conical flow assumption  (plot 2)
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Key results: HLFC subsonic airfoil design

  • Subsonic, π‘΄βˆžM_∞ :0.4 | π‘Ήπ’†βˆžRe_∞ : 16 million | π‘ͺ𝒍Cl:0.4
  • Simultaneous optimization of airfoil and suction
  • Range of design lift coefficients
  • Refs. 1  and 2
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Key results: Transonic airfoil design

  • π‘΄βˆžM_∞ :0.78 | π‘Ήπ’†βˆžRe_∞ : 30 million | π‘ͺ𝒍Cl: 0.55
  • Over 40% lower drag than an optimum turbulent wing
  • 25% lower drag than the optimum NLF airfoil at the sweep angle of 22.5Β°
  • 62% and 52% laminar flow on the upper and lower surface
  • Refs. 3 and 4
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References:

  1. Sudhi, A., Elham, A., and Badrya, C., Coupled Boundary-Layer Suction and Airfoil Shape Optimization for Hybrid Laminar Flow Control, AIAA Journal. DOI: 10.2514/1.J060480
  2. Mosca, V., Karpuk, S., Sudhi, A., Badrya, C., and Elham, A., Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of a Fully Electric Regional Aircraft Wing with Active Flow Control Technology, The aeronautical journal.
  3. Sudhi, A., Radespiel, R., and Badrya, C., Design Exploration of Transonic Airfoils for Hybrid Laminar Flow Control Application. Accepted for publication, in press. DOI:10.2514/1.C036968
  4. Sudhi, A., Badrya, C., Practical Implications of Conical Flow Assumption in NLF and HLFC Wing Design, AIAA AVIATION 2023 Forum, June 2023, DOI: 10.2514/6.2023-431