Aerodynamic airfoil design using the Euler equations based on the dynamic evolution method and the control theory

Based on the idea of adjoint method and the dynamic evolution method, a new optimum aerodynamic design technique is presented in this paper. It can be applied to the optimum problems with a large number of design variables and is time saving. The key of the new method lies in that the optimization process is regarded as an unsteady evolution, i.e., the optimization is executed, simultaneously with solving the unsteady flow governing equations and adjoint equations. Numerical examples for both the inverse problem and drag minimization using Euler equations have been presented, and the results show that the method presented in this paper is more efficient than the optimum methods based on the steady flow solution and the steady solution of adjoint equations.