David W. Zingg

University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies

High-Fidelity Aerostructural Optimization Tools for Future Aircraft Design, Part I

 

Abstract

Systems level analyses have been successful at identifying promising new aircraft technology concepts and quantifying their benefits. The logical next step is to introduce higher fidelity analysis and optimization to progress these concepts further. This talk is the first of two presenting a collaborative project with Prof. Joaquim Martins of the University of Michigan toward high-fidelity aerostructural optimization tools suitable for design and evaluation of future aircraft concepts. In Part I emphasis will be on aerodynamic analysis and optimization. The overall strategy is based on a CAD-free geometry parameterization that includes an efficient integrated mesh movement technique. Numerical solution of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations is accomplished using a parallel Newton-Krylov-Schur solver and a spatial discretization based on summation-by-parts operators. Gradients are computed using the adjoint approach. Recent progress will be presented, including a new two-level free-form deformation approach that is used with the integrated mesh movement technique and retains an analytical geometry representation throughout the optimization, and a gradient-based multi-start algorithm based on Sobol sequences that enables global optimization for multi-modal problems.

Biography

David W. Zingg has been a Professor at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies for the past twenty-five years and has been the Director since 2006. His research areas include aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, aerodynamic shape optimization, and aerostructural optimization. His current research is focussed on applying high-fidelity aerodynamic shape optimization and aerostructural optimization to the design of novel aircraft configurations motivated by the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft. Together with two colleagues from NASA, he is a co-author of the textbook Fundamentals of Computational Fluid Dynamics, published by Springer in 2001. Dr. Zingg has held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Computational Aerodynamics and Environmentally Friendly Aircraft Design since 2001, was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004, has held the J. Armand Bombardier Foundation Chair in Aerospace Flight since 2009, and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He serves on the board of directors of the Green Aviation Research and Development Network (GARDN), which brings together government, academic, and industrial partners to foster the development of technologies to reduce aircraft noise and emissions.