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Minimization of Sonic Boom on Supersonic Aircraft Using an Evolutionary Algorithm
Charles L. Karr1, Rodney Bowersox2, and Vishnu Singh3
1Associate Professor and Head, Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics
The University of Alabama
Box 870280
Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0280
ckarr@coe.eng.ua.edu
2Associate Professor
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Texas A&M University
701 H.R. Bright Bldg.
TAMU-3141, College
Station, TX 77843-3141
3Graduate Student
Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics
The University of Alabama
Box 870280
Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487-0280
Abstract. The aerospace community has an increasing interest in developing super sonic transport class vehicles for civil aviation. One of the concerns in such a project is to minimize the sonic boom produced by the aircraft as demonstrated by its ground signature. One approach being considered is to attach a spike/keel on the front of the aircraft to attenuate the magnitude of an aircraft's ground signature. This paper describes an effort to develop an automatic method for designing the spike/keel area distribution that satisfies constraints on the ground signature of a specified aircraft. In this work a genetic algorithm is used to perform the design optimization. A modified version of Whitham's theory is used to generate the near field pressure signature. The ground signature is computed with the NFBOOM atmospheric propagation code. Results indicate that genetic algorithms are effective tools for solving the design problem presented.
LNCS 2724, p. 2157 ff.
lncs@springer.de
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003