DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF WIDE-SPEED WAVERIDER-BASED BLENDED WING-BODY CONFIGURATION

Wide-speed hypersonic vehicles are a key focus for major global aerospace powers to gain a strategic advantage. The wide-speed waverider-based blended wing-body configuration can simultaneously achieve excellent hypersonic waveridering characteristics and low-speed wing circulation/vortex lift properties, effectively mitigating the contradictions in aerodynamic design between high and low speeds. To address the design and optimization of this configuration, a fully parameterized geometric characterization method based on streamline tracing of the waverider and the class-shape transformation (CST) method is proposed. Additionally, a wide-speed aerodynamic model applicable to subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic regimes is developed, enabling efficient and reliable evaluation of the aerodynamic characteristics of this configuration across a wide speed range. Using a genetic algorithm optimization framework, optimization studies are conducted for various constraints and objectives, including single-point hypersonic optimization, multi-point weighted optimization for supersonic and hypersonic conditions and subsonic lift-constrained multi-point weighted optimization for supersonic and hypersonic conditions. The results show that increasing the proportion of the waverider forebody length significantly enhances the lift-to-drag ratio of the hypersonic optimal configuration. The weight distribution in multi-point optimization for supersonic and hypersonic conditions directly affects the configuration characteristics: the larger the hypersonic lift-to-drag ratio weight coefficient, the longer and wider the waverider forebody and the narrower the wing. Compared to the hypersonic optimal configuration, the supersonic optimal configuration exhibits a 12.30% reduction in hypersonic lift-to-drag ratio but a 34.40% increase in supersonic lift-to-drag ratio. Introducing a subsonic high-angle-of-attack lift constraint improves the subsonic lift by 24.60% while improving the hypersonic design lift-to-drag ratio by 2.76% and reducing the supersonic design lift-to-drag ratio by 8.39%.