Low-boom Aerodynamic Shape Optimization of a T-tail Supersonic Transport Configuration

Sonic boom is a bottleneck restricting the commercial operation of supersonic transport, while the aerodynamic shape optimization to reduce sonic boom may lead to the compromise of flight performance. In low-boom design, increasing wing sweep angle or extending wing distribution along the fuselage will cause the aerodynamic center to move backward, which has an adverse effect on the aerodynamic characteristics. Therefore, this paper presents a low-boom design optimization method by adjusting the torsion distribution of the wing and applies it to a T-tail supersonic transport configuration. Firstly, the sonic boom and aerodynamic characteristics of the baseline configuration are evaluated. After trimming the baseline configuration, the sonic boom intensity is increased from 79.89 PLdB to 84.12 PLdB. Then, the low-boom aerodynamic shape design optimization by parametrizing the torsion distribution of the wing is carried out. The near-field wave system of the optimal configuration is smoother, and the aft-body wave system does not merge during propagation to the ground and becomes a multi-shock shape with the ground loudness of 78.71 PLdB. Additionally, the cruise lift-to-drag ratio is increased from 8.65 to 8.81. Finally, to achieve trimming, the horizontal tail is manually deflected 1.89 degrees, causing the loudness reaches to 83.21 PLdB, which is 0.91 PLdB lower than that of the baseline trimmed configuration. This study has certain value for the future study of low-boom design considering aerodynamic characteristics and engineering constraints.