Benchmark of different aerodynamic solvers on wing aero-propulsive interactions

Abstract

Distributed electric propulsion is a fertile research topic aiming to increase the wing aerodynamic efficiency by distributing the thrust over the wing span. The blowing due to distributed propulsors shall increase the wing lift coefficient for a given planform area and flight speed. This should bring several advantages as wing area, drag, and structural weight reduction, which in turn reduce fuel consumption, allowing airplanes to fly more efficiently. However, there are no consolidated preliminary design methods to size a distributed propulsion system. Numerical analysis is then performed at early stage, where many design variables have not been fixed yet. Therefore, the design space is vast and exploring all the possible combinations is unfeasible. For instance, low-fidelity methods (VLM, panel codes) have a low computational time, but usually they do not account for flow separation and hence they are unable to predict the wing maximum lift. Conversely, high-fidelity codes (CFD) provide more realistic results, but a single drag polar sweep can last days. This work provides a benchmark of different aerodynamic solvers for a typical regional turboprop wing with flaps and distributed propulsion, to better understand the limits of each software in the prediction of aero-propulsive effects.