PhD Thesis Proposal by

Kevin Jacobson

(Advisors: Dr. Marilyn Smith and Dr. Graeme Kennedy)

“Adjoint-based Error Estimation and Adaptation of High Fidelity Aeroelastic Analysis”

Friday, March 17 @ 1:00 p.m.
Bill Moore Student Success Center Room 292

Abstract:

An adjoint-enabled aeroelastic solver that couples CFD and a full structural FEM has been developed for this thesis. The adjoint solution will be utilized to form estimations of discretization error in aeroelastic solutions. The adjoint solution will be also used as a basis for an adaptation metric. While feature-based adaptation attempts to better resolve regions of error, adjoint-based adaptation targets the source of the discretization error. By focusing on the source of error, adjoint-based metrics lead to more efficient and effective adaptation. When used in combination with the adjoint-based error estimation, adjoint-based adaptation can be applied repeatedly until the final result is reduced to be within a specified error tolerance. This process of adjoint-based error estimation and adaptation has been applied in CFD and FEM models separately, but this will be the first application in an aeroelastic setting.

Bio:

Kevin Jacobson completed his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree at Georgia Tech in Spring of 2013. In the Fall of 2013, he joined Dr. Marilyn Smith’s Nonlinear Computational Aeroelasticity Lab where he’s worked on projects including numerical experiments to study the physics of dynamic stall, reverse flow, and hub aerodynamics; development of aeroelastic coupling interfaces for rotorcraft and wind turbine applications; and hybrid CFD-free-wake models for rotorcraft analysis. In January of 2015, he began working under the co-advisement of Dr. Graeme Kennedy developing an adjoint-enabled framework for aeroelastic design optimization of aircraft.

Kevin has been an author on 6 conference papers: 2 AIAA SciTech papers, and one at each of the AHS forum, AHS Aeromechanics Specialists Conference, the European Rotorcraft Forum, and Rotorcraft Virtual Engineering Conference. He is an author on two journal papers: one accepted in the AIAA Journal and one under review for the Aeronautical Journal.  He was the team leader for Georgia Tech’s graduate team for the 2016 AHS Student Design Competition which placed second. He is also the winner of the 2015 AHS Southern Region Robert L. Lichten Award.

Committee:
Dr. Marilyn Smith, Georgia Tech, School of Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Graeme Kennedy, Georgia Tech, School of Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Stephen Ruffin, Georgia Tech, School of Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Brian German, Georgia Tech, School of Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Steven Massey, NASA Langley, Computational Aeroelasticity Branch
Dr. William Jones, NASA Langley, Computational Aerosciences Branch