Aerodynamic shape optimization of an airliner elastic wing

Aerodynamic shape optimization of a common airliner elastic wing is presented and compared with optimization of the same wing assuming rigid structure. A gradient-based optimization approach is applied in connection with adjoint method used for calculation of gradients of aerodynamic forces. The initial wing shape is parameterized by Free Form Deformation technique. The aerodynamics of the elastic wing is calculated using the fluid-structure interaction method which couples computational fluid dynamic solver with linear structural solver.