Analysis and Application of Suitable CFD-Based Optimization Strategies for High-Lift System Design

The design of high-lift (HL) systems represents a challenging task within the aerospace community, due to its multidisciplinary, multi-objective and multi-point nature. Within the paper an additional difficulty is considered, consisting in the design a HL system for a High Aspect Ratio Low Sweep (HARLS) wing, featuring Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) at transonic cruise conditions. In a first “analysis” phase a realistic optimization problem is defined and solved by adopting different approaches in terms of employed flow model, meshing strategies, geometry parameterization and optimization strategies. In a second “application” phase, the design of an optimal feasible HL system is developed for the HARLS-NLF wing, by considering a close coupling between 3D CFD-based optimization, kinematical layout studies and mechanical integration studies