We present an optimization algorithm for the study of induced drag minimization, with applications to unconventional aircraft design. The algorithm is based on a discrete-adjoint formulation and uses an efficient parallel-Newton-Krylov solution strategy. We validate the optimizer by recovering an elliptical lift distribution using twist optimization; we believe this an important, and under-appr...

This paper examines the evolutionary approach for aircraft design optimization. Several niching and elitist models are first applied to Multiple-Objective Genetic Algorithms (MOGAs). Numerical results suggest that the combination of the fitness sharing and the best-N selection leads to the best performance. The resulting MOGA is then applied to multidisciplinary design optimization problems of ...

Meinen Eltern "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.

In the past two decades, major flood events have occurred on the lower Colorado River, a dramatic shift from the low flows and moderate floods associated with prior decades of river regulation. This study uses repeat aerial photography and Geographic Information System analysis to examine the planform channel response of the upper Colorado River delta (limitrophe reach) to this recently altered...

Active flow control is used to modify the lift, drag and pitching moments on a semicircular wing with aspect ratio, AR = 2, and chord Reynolds number is 68,000. The wing is mounted on a pitch/plunge sting mechanism that responds to the instantaneous loads and moments acting on the wing. The leading edge of the airfoil contains 16 spatially localized actuators that can be independently controlle...