Evaluating the Risk of Local Optima in Aerodynamic Shape Optimization

What is it about?

In optimization, some problems can present with more than one locally optimal solution, known as multimodal problems. This is problematic for optimization methods which are unable to tell if they have located a global, or merely local, optimum. Such methods are very commonly used in aerodynamic shape optimization, making multimodality a very large potential problem for the field. This paper seeks to quantify how prevalent multimodality is within aerodynamic shape optimization problems, and when it is present, how much of a risk it presents.

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