Aerodynamic Data Reconstruction and Inverse Design Using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition

The application of proper orthogonal decomposition for incomplete (gappy) data for compressible external aerodynamic problems has been demonstrated successfully in this paper for the first time. Using this approach, it is possible to construct entire aerodynamic flowfields from the knowledge of computed aerodynamic flow data or measured flow data specified on the aerodynamic surface, thereby demonstrating a means to effectively combine experimental and computational data. The sensitivity of flow reconstruction results to available measurements and to experimental error is analyzed. Another new extension of this approach allows one to cast the problem of inverse airfoil design as a gappy data problem. The gappy methodology demonstrates a great simplification for the inverse airfoil design problem and is found to work well on a range of examples, including both subsonic and transonic cases.