An automated CFD analysis workflow in overall aircraft design applications

Abstract

An automated CFD-based analysis process for applications at the early aircraft development stages is presented. The robustness of the implemented process, which relies on a knowledge-based layer implemented into the automated pre-processing step of the geometrical components, allows taking advantage of high fidelity simulations, also for large explorations of the design space. The well-known aircraft configuration DLR-F6 is chosen to verify the automated analysis process. The CFD analysis process is integrated into the DLR multi-fidelity aircraft design environment, which relies on the DLR open source distributed framework RCE, and the DLR central data model CPACS. The overall aircraft design synthesis is performed for a conventional passenger transportation aircraft configuration, by making use of variable fidelity methods for the aerodynamic analysis. The results discuss the impact of employing CFD-based analysis into overall aircraft design applications.