Integrated aerodynamic and high frequency electromagnetic stealth design of airfoil considering coating

Stealth coating design is the key technology and necessary measure for stealth performance of advanced combat aircraft. The traditional coating design mainly depends on engineering experience, and lacks systematic research on coating design, leading to the unclear relationship between stealth coating design and aerodynamic characteristics of aircraft. Thus, it is difficult to achieve integrated optimization of aircraft aerodynamics, stealth, weight, use and maintenance. To solve the above problems, this paper takes the symmetrical airfoil NACA65013 as the research object, and comparatively analyzes the effects of coating thickness and position on its aerodynamic, stealth and weight characteristics. It is found that the coating position and thickness significantly influence the aerodynamic, stealth and weight characteristics of the airfoil, with obvious contradictions among them. Then, according to the requirements of the aerodynamic, stealth and weight design, the optimal coating area is selected, the aerodynamic stealth optimization design of the airfoil considering the influence of coating is conducted and compared with that of airfoil shape without coating. The results show that the forward Radar Cross-Section(RCS) of the aerodynamic stealth design results considering coating is one order of magnitude lower than that of the airfoil shape without coating, and more than 90% lower than that of the initial airfoil. This research provides an efficient and reliable design method for the fine design of aircraft aerodynamic stealth shape and coating material, exhibiting high theoretical and engineering value.