Date of Award

2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Supervisor

Dr. Chao Zhang

Second Advisor

Dr. Jin Jiang

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to present a numerical algorithm for the dynamical opti­ mization of fluid flow systems that contain both geometric and control variables. This problem was formulated in an optimal control setting by specifying some performance functional to be minimized subject to the constraints provided by the discretized state equations. An algorithm was presented and applied successfully in the feedforward case to a simple fluid flow problem. Linear quadratic feedback control of laminar incompressible fluid was also studied with the eventual intention of incorporating feedback control into the optimization process. A feedback law was developed nu­ merically for incompressible fluid flow systems in some special cases, but after some numerical analysis it became clear that this method would have to be developed fur­ ther before it could be of any practical use.

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