Development of Aerodynamic Optimisation

My interest in fluid dynamic modelling developed during my degree and subsequent industrial employment, and has now matured to the extent that I feel comfortable planning postgraduate study within the field. CFD itself is a mature field, and my intention is therefore to move in to the next cutting-edge area of shape optimisation using CFD. Exciting questions relating to designing optimal geometries using CFD remain unanswered in many respects. For example, two of the most fundamental restrictions to fluid-based geometric optimisation are that the topology of the shape usually remains unchanged, and also that the parameter set defining the shape does not change in terms of resolution. My objectives will therefore be focused on exploring topology free parameterisations that also permit geometric refinement. One current area of interest is volume of solid parameterisations. These parameterisations will be used so that additional design variables may be added during the optimisation process, and so that the method has full scope to explore a wide variety of shapes. The goal will be to create tools which are able to automatically generate new aerodynamic designs with improved performance. Tools for achieving this exist in part within the University of Bristol, in the form of in-house CFD tools, as well as a pre-existing history of developing parameterisations. The existing CFD tools will be coupled to new parameterisations, and the capability to geometrically refine will be included. The final step will be to make these methods accessible to practitioners in industry so that they can be readily applied to real-world problems. My interest in fluid dynamic modelling developed during my degree and subsequent industrial employment, and has now matured to the extent that I feel comfortable planning postgraduate study within the field. CFD itself is a mature field, and my intention is therefore to move in to the next cutting-edge area of shape optimisation using CFD. Exciting questions relating to designing optimal geometries using CFD remain unanswered in many respects. For example, two of the most fundamental restrictions to fluid-based geometric optimisation are that the topology of the shape usually remains unchanged, and also that the parameter set defining the shape does not change in terms of resolution. My objectives will therefore be focused on exploring topology free parameterisations that also permit geometric refinement. One current area of interest is volume of solid parameterisations. These parameterisations will be used so that additional design variables may be added during the optimisation process, and so that the method has full scope to explore a wide variety of shapes. The goal will be to create tools which are able to automatically generate new aerodynamic designs with improved performance. Tools for achieving this exist in part within the University of Bristol, in the form of in-house CFD tools, as well as a pre-existing history of developing parameterisations. The existing CFD tools will be coupled to new parameterisations, and the capability to geometrically refine will be included. The final step will be to make these methods accessible to practitioners in industry so that they can be readily applied to real-world problems.