Surrogate-assisted airfoil optimization in rarefied gas flows

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Hauptverfasser: Li, Xiaoda, Yuan, Ruifeng, Zhang, Yanbing, Wu, Lei
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Li, Xiaoda
Yuan, Ruifeng
Zhang, Yanbing
Wu, Lei
author_facet Li, Xiaoda
Yuan, Ruifeng
Zhang, Yanbing
Wu, Lei
contents With growing interest in space exploration, optimized airfoil design has become increasingly important. However, airfoil design in rarefied gas flows remains underexplored because solving the Boltzmann equation formulated in a six dimensional phase space is time consuming. To address this problem, a solver-in-the-loop Bayesian optimization framework for symmetric, thickness-only airfoils is developed. First, airfoils are parameterized using a class shape transformation that enforce geometric admissibility. Second, a Gaussian process expected improvement surrogate is coupled in batches to a fast converging, asymptotic preserving Boltzmann solver for sample efficient exploration. Drag minimizing airfoils are identified in a wide range of gas rarefaction. It is found that, at Mach numbers Ma=2 and 4, the streamwise force increases with the gas rarefaction and shifts from pressure dominated to shear dominated drag, while optimization reduces drag at all conditions. The benefit of optimization peaks in the weakly rarefied regime, about 30% at Ma=2 and 40 to 50% at Ma=4, and falls to a few percent in transition and free-molecular flow regimes. Drag decomposition shows that these gains come mainly from reduced pressure drag, with viscous drag almost unchanged. The optimal airfoils form a coherent rarefaction-aware family: they retain a smooth, single-peaked thickness profile, are aft-loaded at low gas rarefaction, and exhibit a forward shift of maximum thickness and thickness area toward mid-chord as gas rarefaction increases. These trends provide a physically interpretable map that narrows the design space.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_07093
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Surrogate-assisted airfoil optimization in rarefied gas flows
Li, Xiaoda
Yuan, Ruifeng
Zhang, Yanbing
Wu, Lei
Fluid Dynamics
Computational Physics
With growing interest in space exploration, optimized airfoil design has become increasingly important. However, airfoil design in rarefied gas flows remains underexplored because solving the Boltzmann equation formulated in a six dimensional phase space is time consuming. To address this problem, a solver-in-the-loop Bayesian optimization framework for symmetric, thickness-only airfoils is developed. First, airfoils are parameterized using a class shape transformation that enforce geometric admissibility. Second, a Gaussian process expected improvement surrogate is coupled in batches to a fast converging, asymptotic preserving Boltzmann solver for sample efficient exploration. Drag minimizing airfoils are identified in a wide range of gas rarefaction. It is found that, at Mach numbers Ma=2 and 4, the streamwise force increases with the gas rarefaction and shifts from pressure dominated to shear dominated drag, while optimization reduces drag at all conditions. The benefit of optimization peaks in the weakly rarefied regime, about 30% at Ma=2 and 40 to 50% at Ma=4, and falls to a few percent in transition and free-molecular flow regimes. Drag decomposition shows that these gains come mainly from reduced pressure drag, with viscous drag almost unchanged. The optimal airfoils form a coherent rarefaction-aware family: they retain a smooth, single-peaked thickness profile, are aft-loaded at low gas rarefaction, and exhibit a forward shift of maximum thickness and thickness area toward mid-chord as gas rarefaction increases. These trends provide a physically interpretable map that narrows the design space.
title Surrogate-assisted airfoil optimization in rarefied gas flows
topic Fluid Dynamics
Computational Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07093