No abstract

An evolutionary geometry parametrization is presented for aerodynamic shape optimization. The geometry parametrization technique is constructed by integrating the traditional B-spline approach with a knot insertion procedure. It is capable of defining a sequence of nested parametrizations with the number of design variables being gradually enlarged. The optimization coupled with this technique is carried out sequentially from the basic parametrization to more refined parametrizations, as long as the geometry can be continuously improved. Due to the nature of the B-spline formulation, feasible parametrization refinements are not unique. Guidelines based on sensitivity analysis and geometric constraints are developed to assist the automation. The proposed process is applied to several optimization examples to demonstrate its effectiveness.