A faster optimization method based on support vector regression for aerodynamic problems

In this paper, a new strategy for optimal design of complex aerodynamic configuration with a reasonable low computational effort is proposed. In order to solve the formulated aerodynamic optimization problem with heavy computation complexity, two steps are taken: (1) a sequential approximation method based on support vector regression (SVR) and hybrid cross validation strategy, is proposed to predict aerodynamic coefficients, and thus approximates the objective function and constraint conditions of the originally formulated optimization problem with given limited sample points; (2) a sequential optimization algorithm is proposed to ensure the obtained optimal solution by solving the approximation optimization problem in step (1) is very close to the optimal solution of the originally formulated optimization problem. In the end, we adopt a complex aerodynamic design problem, that is optimal aerodynamic design of a flight vehicle with grid fins, to demonstrate our proposed optimization methods, and numerical results show that better results can be obtained with a significantly lower computational effort than using classical optimization techniques.