Reducing the sonic boom to a community-acceptable level is a fundamental challenge in the configuration design of the next-generation supersonic transport aircraft. This paper conducts a survey of recent progress in developing efficient low-boom design and optimization methods, and provides a perspective on the state-of-the-art and future directions. First, the low- and high-fidelity sonic boom prediction methods used in metric of low-boom design are briefly introduced. Second, efficient low-boom inverse design methods are reviewed, such as the classic Jones–Seebass–George–Darden (JSGD) method (and its variants), the high-fidelity near-field-overpressure-based method, and the mixed-fidelity method. Third, direct numerical optimization methods for low-boom designs, including the gradient-, surrogate-, and deep-learning-based optimization methods, are reviewed. Fourth, the applications of low-boom design and optimization methods to representative low-boom configurations are discussed, and the challenging demands for commercially viable supersonic transports are presented. In addition to providing a comprehensive summary of the existing research, the practicality and effectiveness of the developed methods are assessed. Finally, key challenges are identified, and further research directions such as full-carpet-low-boom-driven multidisciplinary design optimization considering mission requirements are recommended.

中文翻译：

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高效低臂架设计及优化方法的最新进展


将音爆降低到社会可接受的水平是下一代超音速运输机构型设计的根本挑战。本文对开发高效低臂设计和优化方法的最新进展进行了调查，并提供了对最新技术和未来方向的看法。首先，简要介绍了低爆设计度量中使用的低保真度和高保真度音爆预测方法。其次，回顾了高效的低臂逆设计方法，例如经典的琼斯-塞巴斯-乔治-达登（JSGD）方法（及其变体）、基于高保真近场超压的方法以及混合-保真度方法。第三，回顾了低臂设计的直接数值优化方法，包括基于梯度、替代和深度学习的优化方法。第四，讨论了低臂设计和优化方法在代表性低臂配置中的应用，并提出了商业上可行的超音速运输的挑战性需求。除了对现有研究进行全面总结外，还评估了所开发方法的实用性和有效性。最后，确定了关键挑战，并建议进一步的研究方向，例如考虑任务要求的全地毯低臂驱动多学科设计优化。