Abstract

A computer-implemented method of designing an aerodynamic component is provided. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver simulates fluid flow around aerodynamic components of geometric shape defined by respective initial sets of variable values to obtain values of CFD solver outputs indicative of performance characteristics of the aerodynamic components in the fluid flow. Objective values based on the CFD solver outputs are determined to obtain pairs of the variable values and corresponding objective values. A surrogate model describing a relationship between the variables and objectives is constructed and solved subject to defined constraints to determine Pareto optimal solutions. The model is improved by iteratively selecting further sets of variable values and evaluating these using the CFD solver, updating the surrogate model using the outputs, and solving the updated model for Pareto optimal solutions. The aerodynamic component is designed according to a Pareto optimal solution of the updated model.

IPC Classes  ?

• G06F 30/15 - Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• G06F 30/23 - Design optimisation, verification or simulation using finite element methods [FEM] or finite difference methods [FDM]
• G06F 111/06 - Multi-objective optimisation, e.g. Pareto optimisation using simulated annealing [SA], ant colony algorithms or genetic algorithms [GA]
• G06F 113/28 - Fuselage, exterior or interior