Design Performance investigation of Modified PARSEC Airfoil Representation using Genetic Algorithm

The original PARSEC (PARametric SECtion) method can satisfactorily solve optimization problems involving transonic airfoils. Designers can easily understand which parameters are important in the PARSEC representation, because each parameter is determined based on the physics of the transonic flow. However, it is difficult to apply this method to the design of airfoils under other conditions, such as supersonic or low Reynolds number flows. To solve various airfoil design problems with a number of design variables, a modified PARSEC representation was proposed. In this study, the proposed representation is used along with multi-objective genetic algorithms to solve two types of airfoil design problems—the transonic airfoil and an airfoil for low Reynolds number flow in the Martian atmosphere. The results indicate that better solutions can be obtained by using the proposed representation, especially in the Martian atmosphere.International Conference on Evolutionary and Deterministic methods for Design, Optimization and Control with Applications to Industrial and Social Problems, EUROGEN2011September 14-16, 2011Ital