Simultaneous pseudo-time stepping for 3D aerodynamic shape optimization

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical method for aerodynamic shape optimization problems with state constraint. It uses a simultaneous semi-iterative technique to solve the equations arising from the first order necessary optimality conditions. Although there is no theoretical proof of convergence of this algorithm so far, in our numerical experiments the method converges without additional globalization in the design space. A reduced SQP method based preconditioner is used for convergence acceleration. Design examples of drag reduction with constant lift for wing and body of a Supersonic Commercial Transport (SCT) aircraft are included. The overall cost of computation is about 8 forward simulation runs.