HIGH-PERFORMANCE SUPERSONIC MISSILE INLET DESIGN USING AUTOMATED OPTIMIZATION

A multilevel design strategy for supersonic missile inlet design is de veloped. The multilevel design strategy combines an efficient simple p hysical model analysis tool and a sophisticated computational fluid dy namics (CFD) Navier-Stokes analysis tool. The efficient simple analysi s tool is incorporated into the optimization loop, and the sophisticat ed CFD analysis tool is used to verify, select, and filter the final d esign, The genetic algorithms and multistart gradient line search opti mizers are used to search the nonsmooth design space. A geometry model for the supersonic missile inlet is developed, A supersonic missile i nlet that starts at Mach 2.6 and cruises at Mach 4 was designed. Signi ficant improvement of the inlet total pressure recovery has been obtai ned, Detailed flowfield analysis is also presented.