Front Fender Drag Optimization: Why Running CFD in a Loop Is a Bad Idea
The naive approach to aerodynamic optimization is obvious: run CFD, check drag, adjust geometry, run CFD again. Repeat until satisfied. This works if you have a few design variables and a lot of patience. It doesn’t work if you have a high-dimensional design space, a CFD solver that takes hours per run, and an optimization algorithm that wants to query thousands of points. The solution is to decouple the two problems. ...