On the ‘vorticity’ formulation of the adjoint equations and its solution using the vortex method

Adjoint equations arise in many problems of optimal flow control and estimation. This paper discusses the ‘vorticity’ (i.e. non-primitive) formulation of such equations in the case of the wake control problem. First we derive the ‘vorticity’ form from the primitive form of the adjoint equations, and then show how it can be efficiently solved using the vortex method. We also discuss some implementation issues and present sample results. This article was chosen from Selected Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Vortex Flows and Related Numerical Methods (UC Santa-Barbara, 17-20 March 2002) ed E Meiburg, G H Cottet, A Ghoniem and P Koumoutsakos.