Buffet Alleviation via Linear Stability Adjoint

TL;DR

This paper introduces an efficient adjoint-based method to predict and optimize transonic buffet onset in aircraft designs, enabling significant drag reduction while satisfying buffet constraints.

Contribution

It develops a coupled adjoint approach for sensitivity analysis of linear stability eigenvalues, facilitating buffet-aware aerodynamic shape optimization.

Findings

Verified the eigensolver and adjoint against benchmark cases.

Achieved 22.4% drag reduction in a buffet-constrained optimization.

Recovered buffet onset predictions for a complex aircraft model.

Abstract

Transonic buffet, self--sustained shock and shear--layer oscillations, imposes hard limits on the cruise envelope of modern transport aircraft, and avoiding it is a primary design driver. State-of-the-art buffet-onset criteria used in design, such as the $\Delta\alpha = 0.1^\circ$ criterion and separation--sensor methods, are empirical surrogates rather than first--principle predictors, and can yield either overly conservative or unsafe designs. Linear stability analysis (LST) predicts buffet onset directly from the spectrum of the linearized operator about the steady base flow, but using it as an aerodynamic shape optimization constraint has been bottlenecked by the cost of differentiating an eigenvalue with respect to many design variables. In this paper, we develop a coupled adjoint method that efficiently computes the sensitivity of the dominant LST eigenvalue with respect to a large number of shape design variables, by reusing the steady CFD adjoint within a top and bottom level decomposition of the eigenproblem. We verify the eigensolver and adjoint against the canonical cylinder vortex--shedding benchmark, then verify the LST predictions on the OAT15A supercritical airfoil at $M=0.73$, $Re=3.2\times 10^{6}$ against published eigenspectra and against the linear growth phase of a URANS run. Using the resulting gradients, a single-point buffet-constrained drag minimization of the OAT15A achieves a $22.4\%$ drag reduction while satisfying the LST-based buffet constraint. Finally, we present preliminary three-dimensional results on the wing only NASA common research model (CRM) at $M=0.85$, $Re=5\times 10^{6}$, recovering buffet onset at $\alpha \approx 4.0^\circ$ from a sweep of warm--started URANS runs and providing a stepping stone toward three-dimensional buffet-constrained wing optimization with the present adjoint.