Multi-stage optimization method for air-intake system of hovercraft based on autonomous optimization

Abstract

In this study, an optimal structural design program was designed and developed for Computational Fluid Dynamics based on self-optimization, effectively reducing the time required for structural optimization. Through experimental design using this program, the effects of various design variables on the optimization objectives were evaluated, and an adaptive simulated annealing algorithm was used for global optimization. Furthermore, response surface methodology and a nonlinear quadratic programming algorithm were utilized to obtain a global optimum solution after repeated iterations. Moreover, using a hovercraft air-intake system as the optimized object, the total pressure loss of the system was completely optimized by using a porous medium model and Matlab analysis program, and the accuracy of the structural design optimization program was validated. After the global optimization, the total pressure loss of the air-intake system was reduced by 20.5% compared to the original model. An average nonuniformity of 4.36% of engine inlet speed and 5% local nonuniformity of 11.19% satisfy the design requirements of the hovercraft engine. This method can be directly applied to engineering optimization problems as well as multiobjective optimization tasks after improving the relevant methodologies.

Keywords:

• Self-optimization
• air-intake system
• uniformity analysis
• simulation

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge financial assistance from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Projects 51309063 and U1460202) and Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Project No. 20132304120012).