Enriched Basis Functions for Handling Wake–Body Intersections in Dirichlet Panel Methods

Abstract

The theory and an implementation of enriched basis functions in Dirichlet (source-doublet) panel methods to simplify the geometric constraints of wake–body intersections is presented. In the approach, a discontinuous basis function is introduced to represent the jump in surface scalar velocity potential at the intersection of a wake sheet and a network of body panels. By introducing this set of enriched basis functions to represent discontinuous potentials, the method can easily handle intrapanel discontinuities while maintaining a scalar-potential-only Dirichlet formulation. As a result, discretized geometries from CAD and computational-fluid-dynamics tools may be used in the resulting enriched basis Dirichlet panel method without modification. A simple spherical geometry, a well-documented wing–body configuration as well as a generic wing–body configuration are presented.