For Andrea Lopez’s thesis on ‘Optimization Methods for External and Internal Flows Using CFD Adjoint and Mesh Morphing,’ two workflows were developed: ‘Adjoint-sculpting’ and ‘Adjoint-preview.’ Adjoint-sculpting is parameterless, leveraging the adjoint method to identify new shapes, while Adjoint-preview requires user-defined parameters, and adjoint is used to drive optimization and identify the optimum solution. These two workflows were applied to external and internal fluid dynamics problems of increasing complexity, including a cube, a pipe with an elbow bend, an Ahmed body, and an air conveyor for cooling a brake disc. Very satisfactory results were obtained in all the proposed applications.
Here you can find the presentation and the full thesis.