The VKI Lecture Series on "Introduction to optimization & multidisciplinary design in AR and TU" will take place at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (Belgium) from May 31 - June 4, 2010.

This course intends to provide the basic concepts and tools for single-and multi-objective optimization for applications where different disciplines interact such as fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, acoustics, and conjugate heat transfer. Topics which will be treated in detail include: gradient based and steepest descent methods, methods based on adjoint equation, evolutionary/genetic algorithms, concept of Pareto front, game strategy, fast approximation methods (Responce Surface Method, Radial Basis functions, Artificial Neural Networks, Kriging), robust design. All concepts are illustrated by applications in different domains, including aircraft design, propeller design and turbomachinery.