Grid Discretization Study for the Efficient Aerodynamic Analysis of the Very Light Aircraft (VLA) Configuration

Abstract

In this research the development of unstructured grid discretization solution techniques is presented. The purpose is to describe such a conservative discretization scheme applied for experimental validation work. The objective of this paper is to better establish the effects of mesh generation techniques on velocity fields and particle deposition patterns to determine the optimal aerodynamic characteristics. In order to achieve the objective, the mesh surface discretization approaches used the VLA prototype manufacturing tolerance zone of the outer surface. There were 3 schemes for this discretization study implementation. They are solver validation, grid convergence study and surface tolerance study. A solver validation work was implemented for the simple 2D and 3D model to get the optimum solver for the VLA model. A grid convergence study was also conducted with a different growth factor and cell spacing, the amount of mesh can be controlled. With several amount of mesh we can get the converged amount of mesh compared to experimental data. The density around surface model can be calculated by controlling the number of element in every important and sensitive surface area of the model. The solver validation work result provided the optimum solver to employ in the VLA model analysis calculation. The convergence study approach result indicated that the aerodynamic trend characteristic was captured smooth enough compared with the experimental data. During the surface tolerance scheme, it could catch the aerodynamics data of the experiment data. The discretization studies made the validation work more efficient way to achieve the purpose of this paper.