Results and Conclusions of the European Project IDIHOM on High-Order Methods for Industrial Aerodynamic Applications

Abstract

In aeronautical industry numerical flow simulation has become a key element in the aerodynamic design process. However, in order to meet the ambitious goals for air traffic of the next decades, significant investment in enhancing the capabilities and tools of numerical simulations in various aspects is required. Within the 7th European Research Framework Programme, the collaborative target research project IDIHOM was initiated. The overall objective of this project was to enhance and mature adaptive high-order simulation methods for large-scale applications. Compared to its low-order counterparts, high-order methods have shown large potential to either increase the predictive accuracy related to the descretization error at given costs or to significantly reduce computational expenses for a prescribed accuracy. The IDIHOM project was driven by a top-down approach, in which dedicated enhancements and improvements of the complete high-order simulation framework, including grid generation, flow solver and visualization, were led by a suite of underlying and challenging test cases. The project gathered 21 partners from industry, research organizations and universities with well-proven expertise in high-order methods. It started end October 2010 and finished March 2014. This paper presents the achievements of the project and highlights strenghts, weaknesses and perspectives of higher-order methods for aerodynamic applications.