Inverse Design Of Airfoils Using A Flexible Membrane Method

Abstract

The Modified Garabedian Mc-Fadden (MGM) method is used to inversely design airfoils. The Finite Difference Method (FDM) for Non-Uniform Grids was developed to discretize the MGM equation for numerical solving. The Finite Difference Method (FDM) for Non-Uniform Grids has the advantage of being used flexibly with an unstructured grids airfoil. The commercial software FLUENT is being used as the flow solver. Several conditions are set in FLUENT such as subsonic inviscid flow, subsonic viscous flow, transonic inviscid flow, and transonic viscous flow to test the inverse design code for each condition. A moving grid program is used to create a mesh for new airfoils prior to importing meshes into FLUENT for the analysis of flows. For validation, an iterative process is used so the Cp distribution of the initial airfoil, the NACA0011, achieves the Cp distribution of the target airfoil, the NACA2315, for the subsonic inviscid case at M=0.2. Three other cases were carried out to validate the code. After the code validations, the inverse design method was used to design a shock free airfoil in the transonic condition and to design a separation free airfoil at a high angle of attack in the subsonic condition.