Free Form Deformation, mesh morphing and reduced order methods: enablers for efficient aerodynamic shape optimization
For aerodynamic design engineers, this pipeline reduces computational cost of shape optimization while preserving accuracy, though the approach is incremental as it combines existing techniques.
This work presents an integrated pipeline combining Free-Form Deformation, mesh morphing, and reduced order models (POD with interpolation and domain decomposition) for efficient aerodynamic shape optimization. Tested on the DrivAer car model, the method achieves significant speed-up while maintaining accuracy, enabling practical industrial applications.
The work provides an integrated pipeline for the model order reduction of turbulent flows around parametrised geometries in aerodynamics. In particular, Free-Form Deformation is applied for geometry parametrisation, whereas two different reduced-order models based on Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) are employed in order to speed-up the full-order simulations: the first method exploits POD with interpolation, while the second one is based on domain decomposition. For the sampling of the parameter space, we adopt a Greedy strategy coupled with Constrained Centroidal Voronoi Tessellations, in order to guarantee a good compromise between space exploration and exploitation. The proposed framework is tested on an industrially relevant application, i.e. the front-bumper morphing of the DrivAer car model, using the finite-volume method for the full-order resolution of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations.