Aerodynamic Optimization of Integrated Wing-Engine Geometry Using an Unstructured Vorticity Solver

Abstract

A high fidelity surface vorticity solver in conjunction with an optimizer is used to find optimal solutions for engine integration. The case study for this paper is an aerodynamically optimized engine configuration added to the DLR-F4 from the AIAA CFD drag prediction workshop. The unstructured meshes generated during the optimization process are produced by Open Vehicle Sketch Pad. The SwarmOps particle swarm optimization algorithm is used within Phoenix Integration ModelCenter during the optimization process. A purely aerodynamically focused optimization resulted in a wing-engine geometry with the engine being moved forward and down away from the lower surface of the wing as well as the engine being placed at a maximum outboard location near the wing tip. A wing spar structural analysis tool and vertical stabilizer sizing model were added to this optimization to attain a more realistic optimal design. The result of this optimization revealed that the benefits to the ratio of lift over drag attained by moving the engines outboard were greatly overshadowed by the increased weight of the wing spar and added weight and drag of an ever increasing vertical stabilizer size.