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The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach of using additively manufactured parametric models in the wind tunnel test-based aerodynamic shape optimization (ASO) framework and to present its applicability test results obtained from a realistic aircraft design problem.

For aircraft shape optimization, the following three methodologies were used. First, as a validation study, the possibility of using rapid prototyping (RP) model in the wind tunnel test was verified. Second, through the wind tunnel test-based ASO, the application and feasibility of the real fighter aircraft shape optimization were verified. A generic fighter configuration is parameterized to generate various test models using additive manufacturing. Wind tunnel tests are conducted to measure their stability criteria in high angle of attack (AOA). Finally, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study was performed and analysis procedures, costs and results compared to the wind tunnel test were compared and reviewed.

RP technology can significantly reduce the time and cost of generating parametric wind tunnel models and can open up new possibilities for wind tunnel tests to be used in the rigorous aerodynamic design loop. There was a slight difference between the results of the RP model and the metallic model because of rigidity and surface roughness. However, the tendency of the aerodynamic characteristics was very similarly predictable. Although there are limitations to obtaining precise aerodynamic data, it is a suitable method to be applied to comparative studies on various shapes with large geo-metric changes in the early phase of design. The CFD analysis indicates that the wind tunnel-based ASO using the RP model shows the efficiency corresponding to the CFD shape optimization.

The RP parametric models may have various assembly error sources and rigidity problems. The proposed methodology may not be suitable for collecting the accurate aerodynamic database of a final design; rather, the methodology is more suitable to screen out many configurations having fairly large shape variation in the early stage of the design process.

The wind tunnel test-based ASO can replace or supplement CFD-based ASO. In areas where CFD accuracy is low, such as high AOA flight characteristics, RP model wind tunnel-based ASO can be a research method that can secure both efficiency and accuracy advantages, providing ten times more effective in terms of cost and time. The wind tunnel test is used to obtain aerodynamic data at the final stage of shape design. It can be extended to a comparative study of several shapes in the early design phase. This procedure can be applied for both industrial level and educational aircraft design activities.

This study is the application to be applied as a parametric study on the whole aircraft, rather than using the RP model applying a simple partial control surface or configuration change of a part of the wing. The possibility of using the RP model was confirmed by comparing and verifying each other in a medium-sized wind tunnel using a relatively large RP model and a metallic model. It was verified that it can be applied in the shape design process, not the shape verification in the traditional design procedure, and a comparison with the CFD method was also performed. With further development and validation efforts, the new design framework may become an industrial standard for future aircraft development.

The wind speed is very fluctuant and contains a significant energy. Taking into account the turbulent component in the energy management would increase the profitability of the wind‐diesel hybrid system. Sometimes, a diesel generator is used to compensate the requested energy but the storage devices are required to prevent disturbances induced by the wind generator current on the DC‐bus. The purpose of this paper is to show how the battery and flywheel (or ultracapacitors (UCs)) are used to mitigate the fluctuations of the wind generator current. The proposed method is based on the filtering of the wind generator current. The high power density sources (flywheel and UCs) are used in aims to improve the batteries' lifetime, which is estimated, in this paper, by using the rainflow cycles counting method. Spectral studies are made and the simulation and experimental results are analyzed.

This study is organized according to the following main and sub‐topics: wind speed characteristics, hybrid system energy management, behavioral simulations results, spectral analysis and batteries' lifetime estimation and experimental setup and results.

The simulations results highlight the interest in using a second‐order filter. The experimental results show that the fluctuations induced by the wind generator current are effectively mitigated by the storage devices.

The spectral analysis of the current for different filters parameters is realized and the application of the rainflow cycles counting method, in this context, is presented. This paper is interesting for the experimental hybrid system design according to the method proposed to control the DC‐DC converters.