Topic: High-fidelity Multidisciplinary Sensitivity Analysis and Design Optimization for Rotorcraft Applications
Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Time: 11am-noon (EST)
Room: NIA, Rm137
Speaker: Li Wang
Media Site Link:Â http://nia-mediasite.nianet.org/NIAMediasite100/Play/51ae515210444e4f8f7579b19a3e03d71d?catalog=fe540232-73ef-4460-8462-0d8a1a25ea58
Abstract: This talk will present a multidisciplinary sensitivity analysis approach that has been developed and applied to rotorcraft simulations involving tightly coupled high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics and comprehensive analysis. An unstructured-grid, highly-scalable CFD solver and a nonlinear flexible multibody dynamics model are coupled to predict aerodynamic loads and structural responses of helicopter rotor blades. A discretely-consistent, adjoint-based sensitivity analysis in the fluid dynamics solver provides sensitivities arising from unsteady turbulent flows on unstructured, dynamic, overset meshes, while a complex-variable approach is used to assess structural sensitivities with respect to aerodynamic loads. The multidisciplinary sensitivity analysis is conducted through integrating the sensitivity components from each discipline of the coupled system. Accuracy of the coupled system for high-fidelity rotorcraft analysis is verified; simulation results exhibit good agreement with established solutions. A constrained gradient-based design optimization for a HART-II rotorcraft configuration is demonstrated. The computational cost for individual components of the multidisciplinary sensitivity analysis is assessed and improved.
Bio: Dr. Li Wang is a Senior Research Engineer from the National Institute of Aerospace. Her current work focuses on development of a practical, efficient, and high-fidelity tool for multidisciplinary sensitivity analysis involving coupled computational fluid dynamics and comprehensive analysis for rotorcraft aeromechanics. Li earned her PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wyoming in 2009. Her PhD research was centered on development of techniques for high-order adaptive discontinues Galerkin methods in fluid dynamics. Prior to joining NIA, Li held an Assistant Research Professor position in 2009-2015 at the SimCenter of University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and a joint appointment with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she gained extensive experiences on high-order computational fluid dynamics methods for turbulent flow simulations, adjoint-based error estimation, and aerodynamic shape design optimization. Dr. Wang served as a member of the AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee in 2011-2017 and Technical Co-chair of the 31st AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference.