Design of Supercritical Low-Reynolds-Number Airfoils for Fixed-Wing Flight on Mars
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 33, Issue 5
Abstract
Aerodynamic shape optimization for the high-subsonic low-Reynolds-number flow regime represents an area of ongoing research. The interaction between supercritical compressible flow and laminar boundary layer separation is not well understood due to the significant challenges associated with setting up relevant experimental work. However, in the design of future fixed-wing aircraft for flight in extraterrestrial atmospheres, such flow conditions might commonly occur. The present study presents a family of single-point and multipoint optimized airfoils designed for high-subsonic flight at a high-lift condition in the Martian atmosphere. A gradient-based optimizer is used, with a second-order finite-volume flow solver and a second-order continuous adjoint solver for determining surface sensitivities with respect to the objective function of minimizing drag. Both fully turbulent and transitional flow are considered to evaluate the impact on the resulting design and to stress the importance of continuing research to develop robust shape optimization, including laminar boundary layer and transition prediction. Both on-design and off-design conditions are evaluated, the airfoils obtained when considering transition effects demonstrating good overall performance.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or files generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. These include generated grid files, solver configuration files, solver source code files modified compared to the SU2 repository, and selected results files.
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Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 33 • Issue 5 • September 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 24, 2019
Accepted: Mar 6, 2020
Published online: Jun 9, 2020
Published in print: Sep 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Nov 9, 2020
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