Some Remarks on CFD Drag Prediction of an Aircraft Model

Abstract

Observed in CFD drag predictions for the DLR-F6 aircraft model with various configurations, some issues are addressed. The emphasis is placed on the effect of turbulence modeling and grid resolution. With several different turbulence models, the predicted flow feature around the aircraft is highlighted. It is shown that the prediction of the separation bubble in the wing-body junction is closely related to the inherent modeling mechanism of turbulence production. For the configuration with an additional fairing, which has effectively removed the separation bubble, it is illustrated that the drag prediction may be altered even for attached turbulent boundary layer when different turbulence models are used. Grid sensitivity studies are performed with two groups of subsequently refined grids. It is observed that, in contrast to the lift, the drag prediction is rather sensitive to the grid refinement, as well as to the artificial diffusion added for solving the turbulence transport equation. It is demonstrated that an effective grid refinement should drive the predicted drag components monotonically and linearly converged to a finite value.