Aerodynamic optimization of supersonic transport wing using unstructured adjoint method

An aerodynamic design method has been developed by using a three-dimensional Euler code and an adjoint code with a discrete approach. The method is applied to wing design problems of supersonic transports with wing-body-nacelle and wing-body configurations. Hicks-Henne shape functions are adopted for the surface geometry perturbation, and the elliptic equation method is employed for the interior grid modification during the design process. Interior grid sensitivities are neglected except those for design parameters associated with a body translation such as nacelles. The sequential quadratic programming method is used to minimize the drag with constraints on the lift and airfoil thickness. Successful design results confirm validity and efficiency of the present design method.