Proper Orthogonal Decomposition Technique for Transonic Unsteady Aerodynamic Flows

A new method for constructing reduced-order models (ROM) of unsteady small-disturbance e ows is presented. The reduced-order models are constructed using basis vectors determined from the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) of an ensemble of small-disturbance frequency-domain solutions. Each of the individual frequencydomain solutions is computed using an efe cient time-linearized e ow solver. We show that reduced-order models can be constructed using just a handful of POD basis vectors, producing low-order but highly accurate models of the unsteady e ow over a wide range of frequencies. We apply the POD/ROM technique to compute the unsteady aerodynamic and aeroelastic behavior of an isolated transonic airfoil and to a two-dimensional cascade of airfoils.