Vibrational genetic algorithm as a new concept in airfoil design

We introduce the Vibration concept for real coded Genetic Algorithm and its implementation to inverse airfoil design, which decreases the number of CFD calculations. This concept assures efficient diversity in the population and consequently gives faster solution. We used the Vibration concept as vibrational mutation and vibrational crossover. For the mutational manner, a sinusoidal wave with random amplitude is introduced into population periodically from the beginning of the initial step of the genetic process. This operation spreads out the population over the design space and increases exploration performance of the genetic process. This makes passing over local optimums for genetic algorithm easy. In order to apply this new concept at the crossover stages, Double Directional Alpha (DDA) approximation in BLX-α as a new crossover technique which was already presented in our earlier study is used. In the developed technique, the value of α oscillates systematically during the genetic process. Implementation of the Vibration concept to the inverse airfoil design makes the convergence faster.