Optimization of blowing and suction control on NACA 0012 airfoil using genetic algorithm

Active control of the flows over airfoil is an area of heightened interest in the aerospace community. Previous research on flow control design processes heavily depended on trial and error and the designers' knowledge and intuition. Such an approach cannot always meet the growing demands of higher design quality in less time. Successful application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to this kind of control problem critically depends on an efficient searching algorithm for design optimization. Based on our previous research of single suction/blowing jet control on a NACA 0012 airfoil, the design parameters of a two-jet system are proposed. A real-coded EARND genetic algorithm is built on top of the CFD code, guiding the movement of a suction jet and a blowing jet along the airfoil's upper surface. The reasonable optimum control values are determined within the control parameter range. The current study of Genetic Algorithm on airfoil flow control has been demonstrated to be a successful optimization application.