Aerodynamic design optimization by using a continuous adjoint method

This paper presents the fundamentals of a continuous adjoint method and the applications of this method to the aerodynamic design optimization of both external and internal flows. General formulation of the continuous adjoint equations and the corresponding boundary conditions are derived. With the adjoint method, the complete gradient information needed in the design optimization can be obtained by solving the governing flow equations and the corresponding adjoint equations only once for each cost function, regardless of the number of design parameters. An inverse design of airfoil is firstly performed to study the accuracy of the adjoint gradient and the effectiveness of the adjoint method as an inverse design method. Then the method is used to perform a series of single and multiple point design optimization problems involving the drag reduction of airfoil, wing, and wing-body configuration, and the aerodynamic performance improvement of turbine and compressor blade rows. The results demonstrate that the continuous adjoint method can efficiently and significantly improve the aerodynamic performance of the design in a shape optimization problem.