Parsimonious airfoil Parameterisation: A deep learning framework with Bidirectional LSTM and Gaussian Mixture models

Abstract

The choice of airfoil parameterisation method significantly influences the overall wing optimisation performance by affecting the flexibility and computational efficiency of the process. Ideally, one should be able to intuitively constrain airfoil shape and structural characteristics as input to the optimisation process. Current parameterisation techniques lack the flexibility to generate airfoils efficiently by specifying parsimonious shape and structural features. To address this limitation, a deep learning framework is proposed, enabling conditional airfoil generation from an airfoil's shape and structural feature definition. Specifically, we demonstrate the application of Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory models and Bayesian Gaussian Mixture models to derive airfoil coordinates from a compact set of shape and structural characteristics that we define. The proposed framework is shown to achieve favorable airfoil performance optimisation due to improved exploration and exploitation of the design space, compared to traditional approaches. Overall, the proposed optimisation framework is able to realise a 9.04% performance improvement over an airfoil design optimised with traditional parameterisation techniques.