Airfoil optimization using Design-by-Morphing

Abstract

Design-by-Morphing (DbM) is a novel design methodology that creates a search space for topology optimization. Traditional design techniques often impose geometric constraints and, sometimes, the designer’s biases on the design space, which restricts the novelty of the designs and allows for only small local changes. On the contrary, we show in this paper that DbM does not impose such restrictions on the design space, thus allowing for a radical and expansive search space with only a few design parameters. We compare DbM with other methods in the case of design space generation for 2D airfoils and find that DbM can reconstruct the entire UIUC database with >99.5% accuracy. Furthermore, using a bi-objective genetic algorithm, we optimize the airfoil designs created by DbM to maximize both the lift-over-drag ratio, CLDmax, and stall angle tolerance, ∆α, which results in a Pareto-front of innovative airfoils that exhibit substantial improvements in both objectives.