ON THE EFFECT OF SHAPE PARAMETERIZATION ON AEROFOIL SHAPE OPTIMIZATION

Abstract

This paper studies the effect of shape parameterization on automatic aerodynamic shape optimization.Four shape parameterization techniques are studied: mesh points, Hicks-Henne bump functions, B-splinecurves and the PARSEC method. The objective is to compare them based on accuracy and impact on thecomputational cost. First, this paper presents the complete formulation of the optimal design problem for theNavier-Stokes equations. Second, the implementation of these surface representation methods is explored.Finally, results are presented for inverse and drag minimization problems.