Assessment of the unstructured grid software TetrUSS for drag prediction of the DLR-F4 configuration

An application of the NASA unstructured grid softwaresystem TetrUSS is presented for the prediction ofaerodynamic drag on a transport configuration. The paperbriefly describes the underlying methodology andsummarizes the results obtained on the DLR-F4 transportconfiguration recently presented in the first AIAA CFDDrag Prediction Workshop. TetrUSS is a suite of looselycoupled unstructured grid CFD codes developed at theNASA Langley Research Center. The meshing approach isbased on the advancing-front and the advancing-layersprocedures. The flow solver employs a cell-centered, finitevolume scheme for solving the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations on tetrahedral grids. For the presentcomputations, flow in the viscous sublayer has beenmodeled with an analytical wall function. The emphasis ofthe paper is placed on the practicality of the methodologyfor accurately predicting aerodynamic drag data.INTRODUCTIONComputational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has matured tothe point where quality aerodynamic information can beroutinely produced for many engineering applications. Thelevel of success in implementing CFD for solving realisticproblems depends on several factors. Obviously, theaccuracy of the underlying methodology directly affects theviability of solutions and is of primary importance.Moreover, the robustness of the CFD method and the* Senior Research Engineer, Configuration Aerodynamics Br,Senior Research Engineer, Configuration Aerodynamics Br.,Associate Fellow AIAA