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Improved method for transonic airfoil design-by-optimizationAn improved method for use of optimization techniques in transonic airfoil design is demonstrated. FLO6QNM incorporates a modified quasi-Newton optimization package, and is shown to be more reliable and efficient than the method developed previously at NASA-Ames, which used the COPES/CONMIN optimization program. The design codes are compared on a series of test cases with known solutions, and the effects of problem scaling, proximity of initial point to solution, and objective function precision are studied. In contrast to the older method, well-converged solutions are shown to be attainable in the context of engineering design using computational fluid dynamics tools, a new result. The improvements are due to better performance by the optimization routine and to the use of problem-adaptive finite difference step sizes for gradient evaluation.
Document ID
19830023307
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Contractor Report (CR)
Authors
Kennelly, R. A., Jr.
(Informatics General Corp. Palo Alto, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
September 4, 2013
Publication Date
June 1, 1983
Subject Category
Aerodynamics
Report/Patent Number
NASA-CR-166497
TN-11555-307-8
NAS 1.26:166497
Accession Number
83N31578
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAS2-11555
PROJECT: RTOP 505-31-21
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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