The Research of Supersonic Aircraft Low Sonic Boom Configuration Design and Optimizations

Abstract

High noise level of sonic boom is one of the most important reasons that the supersonic transport can’t be applied to civil aviation broadly. Sonic boom is a complicated problem relating to aircraft configuration design, aerodynamics, acoustics and so on. The traditional sonic boom minimization theory is an inverse design method with single object, which makes it difficult to be applied in multi-objective optimization, effectively. For the low sonic boom configuration optimization, the sonic boom noise level prediction method based on supersonic linear theory was developed. The sonic boom level of a basic configuration of supersonic business jet was computed and the cause of formation of sonic boom was analyzed, based on which the fuse and wing plane wais optimized to decrease the noise level of sonic boom. Compared with the basic configuration, the sonic boom level of optimized configuration decreased distinctively, with the overpressure decreasing 41% and the A-weighted noise level decreasing 7.55 decibel. The aerodynamic characteristics of optimized configuration were computed. Compared with the basic configuration, the drag decreased obviously at the cruise condition without moment change.