The design of transonic airfoil sections for an adaptive wing concept using a stochastic optimization method

Abstract

A gradient independent stochastic optimization method based on simulated annealing is used to design airfoils to evaluate the efficiency of an adaptive wing concept for transonic flight conditions. The adaptive wing concept uses actuators to move the surface skin of the wing up or down to accommodate changing flight conditions. Shockless transonic airfoils were designed routinely using both Euler and inviscid/viscid full potential/integral boundary layer methods by simply rninimizing drag as the objective. Baseline airfoils were then flexed or adapted over a constrained portion of the airfoil to evaluate the efficiency of an adaptive wing at off-design conditions. Constraining the adaptation to occur between spars led to a decrease in the drag reduction capability. To a lesser extent, the number of actuators used to flex the wing also has an effect on the adaptive wing efficiency.