(Elsevier, 2026-06-08) Lozano, Carlos; Ponsin Roca, Jorge; Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA)
We give a variational formulation of the continuous adjoint Kutta condition for two-dimensional subcritical potential flow, with emphasis on the Kutta condition and the role of the wake. We show that the adjoint Kutta condition can be imposed by a penalty term evaluated at the trailing edge, with the corresponding Lagrange multiplier determined by stationarity of the Lagrangian with respect to circulation, and that a wake treatment is not required. Some of the implications of these results for adjoint consistency are also briefly discussed.
