Aerodynamic optimization coupled with adjoint-based adaptive unstructured meshes

Abstract

© 2021, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc.. All rights reserved.This paper examines aerodynamic shape optimization considering the two-dimensional Euler equations and adaptive unstructured meshes. In this work, the adaptive process uses primal and adjoint solutions to estimate the error in functional outputs and to formulate adaptive indicators to locally refine the mesh to improve the accuracy of the solution. We investigate four design strategies, two of which include adaptive grids, to check if using adaptive grids in aerodynamic shape optimization is beneficial in terms of the final design and total time. Two test cases considering the NACA0012 airfoil at transonic flows are used, one of which is the AIAA Aerodynamic Design Optimization Discussion Group Case 1 problem and the second is a similar case but considering lift constraint. The results show that adaptive grids can be beneficial in the design process both in terms of the final design and also the total time spent to optimize.