Evaluation of transonic airfoil geometrical parameters effect in drag divergence mach number and the associated impact in aircraft design multi-disciplinary optimization

Abstract

© 2018, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.This paper evaluates the impacts of the technological improvement of transonic airfoil design in a case study of multi-disciplinary optimization of a near-sonic business jet aircraft. The aerodynamic transonic drag divergence characteristics twenty three transonic airfoils were quantified trough Navier-Stokes CFD simulations. The technological factor that quantifies the mach number of drag divergence in association with the geometrical parameters were then related to several mathematical combinations of the geometrical parameters in order to access which parameters are relevant. This relation enables the estimation of the technological factor based on the geometry of an airfoil, closing part of the gap between which geometrical design variables are necessary to guarantee the desired performance.