Hydrofoils have the advantages of operating at high speeds with good seakeeping characteristics. Hydrofoils have regained popularity recently thanks to advances in material science, manufacturing, sensing, and control. In this paper, we present hydrodynamic optimizations of a T-foil using a high-fidelity (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations) numerical framework with a gradient-based optimization algorithm. The focus is on the junction details, which are often responsible for flow separation, cavitation, and stress concentration. We optimized the T-foil design with respect to 188 shape design variables. The optimized designs have lower drag values and increased cavitation inception speeds compared to the NACA0012 baseline. The optimization study shows that junction separation mainly depends on the local junction geometry. However, considering shape variables at outboard sections of the foil contributes to further drag reduction. The results also highlight the importance of considering the tradeoffs between the maximum loading, the need to avoid cavitation, and to minimize drag.

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