A VARIATION-GRADIENT METHOD FOR OPTIMIZATION
OF THE SHAPE OF BLADE CASCADES

S. M. Aul'chenko

UDC 532.5.031

A variation-gradient method for solving the problem on 
optimization of the shape of blade cascades has been developed and 
tested. This method is based on calculation of the gradient of the 
functional of the optimization problem with the use of the parameters 
of a fluid flow varied relative to the design parameters determined 
from the system of variation gasdynamic equations. The efficiency 
of the indicated method was tested, as compared to the efficiency 
of the analogous gradient method in which the gradient of the functional 
of the optimization problem is calculated using the finite-difference 
method, in solving concrete problems on optimization of blade cascades. 
It is shown that the method proposed allows one to substantially decrease 
the time of determining the extremum of the indicated functional.

Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Siberian 
Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 4/1 Institutskaya Str., 
Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia; email: aultch@itam.nsc.ru. Translated 
from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 80, No. 2, pp. 79-83, 
March-April, 2007. Original article submitted July 6, 2005.