Helicopter Rotor Blade Shape Optimization Using NURBS for Airfoil Shape Parameterization

An introductory study of helicopter main rotor blade aerodynamic shape optimization problem is presented. Optimization process is carried out in compressible, viscous, quasi‐steady fluid flow field of hovering rotor described by thin layer Navier‐Stokes equations. Since the gradient‐based optimization technique is chosen the discrete adjoint equation method is used for gradient calculations. The airfoils in the blade cross‐sections are parameterized with Non‐Uniform Rational B‐Splines (NURBS). Inverse three dimensional blade shape optimization example is given to demonstrate the efficiency of the numerical procedure.