Title: Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of a Three-Dimensional Wing by Genetic Algorithm.
Abstract: A Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been applied to optimize a wing aerodynamic shape for generic subsonic transportation aircraft. A three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes (N-S) solver is used to evaluate aerodynamic performance of a wing. Although a GA has proved its ability to solve hard optimization problems, a GA coupled with a three-dimensional N-S solver has not been done yet because it needs large computational time even on the latest supercomputer. To overcome this difficulty, Numerical Wind Tunnel at National Aerospace Laboratory, a parallel vector machine with 166 processing elements, was used. In the optimum design obtained from the present GA, the design principles for the wing developed by existing theory and experience are found to be realized. This indicates feasibility of the present approach for the aerodynamic optimization in advanced computational environment.