TURBOPROP NACELLE OPTIMIZATION USING AUTOMATED SURFACE AND GRID GENERATION AND COARSE-GRAIN PARALLELIZATION

A method has been developed to perform automated sweeps of design vari ables and multiple variable aerodynamic optimizations of a turboprop n acelle forebody. The optimization process involves the generation of a nacelle surface using a unique surface blending approach, the creatio n of a smooth surface mesh, and the calculation of a multipoint aerody namic objective function. Minimal user-input is required. Run times ar e greatly reduced by performing the surface generation step on a heter ogeneous cluster of workstations employing dynamic load balancing. a s imple two-variable automated aerodynamic optimization of the nacelle c utwater region is demonstrated.