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A finite element approach to subsonic aerodynamics
Author(s) -
Habashi W. G.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.421
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1097-0207
pISSN - 0029-5981
DOI - 10.1002/nme.1620140504
Subject(s) - airfoil , aerodynamics , finite element method , plane (geometry) , mathematics , cylinder , potential flow , mathematical analysis , geometry , physics , mechanics , structural engineering , engineering
A study of the application of the Finite Element Method to compressible potential flows, typified by the airfoil problem, is undertaken. Some novel approaches, believed to simplify solution techniques, are presented. The solutions use two pseudo‐variational integrals, appropriate to subsonic flows, and possessing a physical iterative basis. With constant‐derivatives triangular elements formulated for cylindrical co‐ordinates, accurate solutions are easily obtained for the flow over a circular cylinder. For arbitrary airfoils a simple mapping is used to transform them into near circles. An appropriate mesh is then constructed in the mapped plane. The paper then presents two solution approaches by which this non‐linear problem is solved in both the near circle plane and the airfoil plane.