Aircraft infrared signature is one of the most important properties for the military aircraft survivability. In terms of military aircraft, the exhaust system is the most significant infrared radiation source. The exhaust system accounts for more than 90% of the aircraft infrared radiation, and that the exhaust nozzle contributes the most significant infrared radiation of the whole radiation energy provided by the exhaust system from the rear aspect. Low detectionable feature for military aircraft has attracted more importance to promote aircraft survivability via reducing infrared signature. The alteration of nozzle exit area affects an aircraft engine performance; meanwhile, it severely influences the engine infrared signature radiation from the rear side. The present paper is mainly focused on searching an appropriate group of nozzle exit diameter and throat to exit diameter ratio, which can reduce infrared signature radiation while cutting down the loss of thrust. Hence, objectives involve two aspects: one is minimum infrared signature level, and the other is minimum thrust loss. The multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition has been employed to solve this bi-objective optimization problem. The optimization results illustrate that dimension selection range and throat to exit diameter ratio exert more important effect on the thrust loss and infrared signature level. Furthermore, the thrust plays significant role for deciding nozzle exit diameter and throat diameter.
Signatures of shuttle and rocket exhaust plumes in TIMED/SABER radiance data
