Assessment of the Academic CFD Code Galatea-I With the DLR-F11 Model in High Lift Configuration

Abstract

In this study the development and assessment of an academic CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code, named Galatea-I, is reported. The proposed solver employs the RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes) approach, modified by the artificial compressibility method, along with the SST (Shear Stress Transport) turbulence model to predict steady or unsteady turbulent incompressible flow phenomena on three-dimensional unstructured hybrid grids, composed of prismatic, tetrahedral and pyramidal elements. Parallel processing and an agglomeration multigrid method have been included for the acceleration of the solver’s methodologies. Galatea-I is evaluated against a test case of the HiLiftPW-2 (Second High Lift Prediction Workshop). In particular, the low Mach number flow at 7° incidence angle over the DLR-F11 aircraft configuration of Case 1 of the aforementioned workshop was examined; it considers a three-element wing with a leading edge slat and a trailing edge flap attached on a body pod, without including though any of the support brackets used in the wind tunnel experiments. The obtained results are close to the available experimental data, as well as the numerical results of other reference solvers, indicating the proposed methodology’s potential to predict accurately such low Mach number flows over complex geometries.