An inverse method for transonic wing design

Abstract

A fast, efficient and reliable code for wing design has been developed at INTA coupling a residual-correction method by Bauer, McFadden and Garabedian to an inviscid solver for wing analysis in transonic flow. Smoothing procedures, including Bèzier cubic splines, are used to avoid irregularities of the wing surface, as well as the twist distribution. A modified version of FLO22 code is used as the flow solver. The original code has been adapted to improve its accuracy. Some results are presented, showing the reliability of the code. The redesign of a wing in transonic flow—which was used as test case in LARA project of BRITE-EURAM II during 1993–94—is presented with promising results. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.