A Comparison of Airfoil Shape Parameterization Techniques for Early Design Optimization

Abstract

Parameterization has a significant role in airfoil design and optimization where, especially in the early design stages, the aim is to be able to explore as many design alternatives as possible while keeping the number of design parameters to a minimum. Several desirable characteristics, namely, Parsimony, Intuitiveness, Orthogonality, Completeness and Flawlessness are considered. These are applied as comparison metrics to five airfoil parameterization techniques: Ferguson’s curves, HicksHenne bump functions, B-Splines, PARSEC, and Class/Shape function Transformation. The method allows each parameterization technique to be ranked according to each criterion considered, thus providing a basis for objective multiple criteria decision making.