Coupled VSTOL Aircraft and Ship Airwake Turbulent Flow Simulation Model

Abstract

Abstract : The objective of this SBIR program is to develop an efficient computational tool for the prediction of the complex coupled flow field of a VSTOL aircraft and a ship airwake. The proposed approach couples a hybrid chimera/overset mesh methodology with hybrid advanced flow solver methodology for the VSTOL aircraft and ship air wake flow predictions. This approach utilizes a pressure-based flow solver for the low-speed flow of the ship, and a density-based flow solver for the high-speed flow of the VSTOL aircraft. The focus of this Phase I study was to develop and validate the computational capability to separately predict an aircraft VSTOL flow field and flow over a ship structure. A density-based flow solver, CFD-FASTRAN, using blocked, structured meshes, was validated for VSTOL applications. A pressure-based flow solver, CFD-ACEU, using unstructured Cartesian meshes, was validated for ship airwake applications. To demonstrate the viability of the proposed approach for prediction of the complex, coupled VSTOL aircraft/ship airwake, a simulation of a JSF in hover and a solution for a coupled structured aircraft/Cartesian ship were also obtained.