A Method of Body Shape Optimization for Decreasing the Aerodynamic Drag Force in Gas Flow

Abstract

Aerodynamic flow past bodies of various geometrical shapes was studied, and the aerodynamic drag force was reduced through optimization of the body shape using a specially proposed method. The resulting drag force was compared to that for bodies formed by revolution of the profiles of well-known standard series. The study was performed using the Ansys Fluent software for isothermal laminar steady-state flows of incompressible fluid with constant density in a velocity range of 0–10 m/s. It is shown that the aerodynamic drag force for a body with the optimized shape is lower than analogous values for the bodies of revolution with Su-26 and NASA-0006 reference profiles. In comparison to the aerodynamic-drag-force level of 100% for the body of revolution with NASA-0006 profile, the drag force for Su-26 profile at airflow velocity of 10 m/s is 89.4%, while that for the proposed optimized body shape is 89.2%.