Drag prediction and decomposition based on CFD computations

Abstract

In this paper, advanced drag prediction methods based on the momentum conservation theorem were applied to CFD computational results. These methods can decompose total drag into drag components such as wave, viscous and induced drag as well as spurious drag attributed to numerical computations. Hence the more accurate drag prediction is possible by the elimination of the spurious drag term. The computational results showed that the advanced methods had the good capability of drag prediction and meaningful drag decomposition with accuracy. It was also found that the predicted physical drag values were weakly dependent on the mesh quality.