Thomas Economon

Thomas D. Economon


Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics
Durand Building, Room 010A
Stanford, CA 94305

Background

Ph.D. Candidate, Aeronautics & Astronautics, Stanford University, 2010-present.
M.S., Aeronautics & Astronautics, Stanford University, 2010.
B.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 2008.

Research Interests

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Optimal Shape Design via Adjoint-based Methods
  • Computational Aeroacoustics (CAA)
  • Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis, & Optimization (MDAO)
  • Multi-fidelity Design Techniques for Advanced Aicraft Configurations
  • Environmentally Responsible Aviation
  • Passive & Active Flow Control

Current Research Focus

Development of new high-fidelity, multidisciplinary design methodologies for efficient, quiet rotors that meet next generation propulsion and energy challenges: open rotors, propellers, helicopter rotors, turbomachinery, and wind turbines.




Recent Work

Continuous adjoint formulations for the optimal shape design of rotor blades have been developed and implemented. Capabilities include design for both steady problems in a rotating reference frame and unsteady problems via a time-accurate adjoint.

A coupled-adjoint technique enabling aeroacoustic shape design has also been demonstrated. The method is general and could be applied to other multiphysics problems where adjoint sensitivites are desired.

Ongoing work seeks to extend the present aerodynamic+aeroacoustic analysis and design methodologies to large-scale unsteady applications, such as counter-rotating open rotors. All numerical implementation has been performed within the open source SU2 software suite.





Publications

Palacios, F., Colonno, M. R., Aranake, A. C., Campos, A., Copeland, S. R., Economon, T. D., Lonkar, A. K., Lukaczyk, T. W., Taylor, T. W. R., Alonso, J. J., "Stanford University Unstructured (SU2): An open-source integrated computational environment for multi-physics simulation and design.," AIAA Paper 2013-0287, 51st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition, Grapevine, Texas, January 7-10, 2013.
Economon, T. D., Palacios, F., Alonso, J. J., "Unsteady Aerodynamic Design on Unstructured Meshes with Sliding Interfaces," AIAA Paper 2013-0632, 51st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition, Grapevine, Texas, January 7-10, 2013.
Economon, T. D., Palacios, F., Alonso, J. J., "A Coupled-Adjoint Method for Aerodynamic and Aeroacoustic Optimization," AIAA Paper 2012-5598, 12th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations (ATIO) Conference and 14th AIAA/ISSM Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana, September, 2012.
Economon, T. D., Palacios, F., Alonso, J. J., "Optimal Shape Design for Open Rotor Blades," AIAA Paper 2012-3018, 30th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, New Orleans, Louisiana, June, 2012.
Economon, T. D., Copeland, S. R., Alonso, J. J., Zeinali, M., Rutherford, D., "Design and Optimization of Future Aircraft for Assessing the Fuel Burn Trends of Commercial Aviation," AIAA Paper 2011-267, 49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Orlando, Florida, January, 2011.
Morris, S., Stephens, D., Economon, T. D., Blake, W., "Interior Duct Wall Pressure Downstream of a Low-Speed Rotor," AIAA Paper 2008-2893, 14th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, May, 2008.
Economon, T. D., "Effects of Wake Vortices on Commercial Aircraft," AIAA Paper 2008-1428, 46th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, Nevada, January, 2008.