10 th ANKARA INTERNATIONAL AEROSPACE CONFERENCE AIAC-2019-075 18-20 September 2019 - METU, Ankara TURKEY AERODYNAMIC DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF A NON-PLANAR C-WING CONFIGURATION Hulya Sukas 1 , Berkay Pirlepeli 2 , Kiran Ramesh 3 , Melike Nikbay 4 , Konstantinos Kontis 5 Istanbul Technical University; University of Glasgow Istanbul, TURKEY; Glasgow, SCOTLAND ABSTRACT The main goal of aircraft preliminary design is to enhance the aerodynamic performance of wings, and hence an optimization procedure is essential. In this study, the aerodynamic performance of non-planar wings is numerically investigated under different incidences and validated against experiments [8]. Subsequently, a design optimization study of a non-planar “C- wing system is carried out by considering certain constraints and design parameters. Three variables are selected as optimization variables and a sampling study is performed using the LHS method with random selections. A surrogate model is created using the sampling results and the optimization process is carried out using this model. Keywords: C-wing; optimization; induced drag; RANS; non-planar wing INTRODUCTION Researchers around the world have made various design optimizations to reduce the fuel consumption of air vehicles. It has been shown that non-planar wing systems have some benefits on aerodynamic performance compared to traditional wings. For this reason, many new configurations have been developed so far. To improve the aerodynamic performance, an implementation of a framework which includes numerical methods and optimization drivers must be considered. In this study, the design optimization of a non-planar wing has been performed to increase its aerodynamic efficiency. In this context, the aerodynamic characteristics of the C-wing configuration were investigated. In the first phase of the study, validation of the numerical model was done for a various angle of attacks using the data of [Skinner, 2018]. In the second step, aerodynamic optimization of the initial C-wing geometry was carried out using the three selected design variables of the geometry. To perform this optimization process, an algorithm which 1 Master student, Istanbul Technical University, Email: hulyaistifsukas@gmail.com 2 Master student, Istanbul Technical University, Email: berkay270@gmail.com 3 Lecturer, University of Glasgow, Email: kiran.ramesh@glasgow.ac.uk 4 Professor, Istanbul Techical University, Email: nikbay@itu.edu.tr 5 Professor, in University of Glasgow, Email: kostas.kontis@glasgow.ac.uk 1