Advances in Aerodynamic Drag Extraction by Far-Field Methods

Far-field methods for aerodynamic drag calculation and breakdown around aircraft configurations by Computational Fluid Dynamics are widely adopted. Recent improvements and advances of one of these algorithms are discussed. Because these methods rely for breakdown purposes on the detection of the boundary-layer region around the body, an analysis of possible alternatives to the currently adopted boundary-layer sensor is proposed. Furthermore, a recently published study in the case of inviscid flow on the influence of the accuracy of the numerical solution at far field has been repeated in viscous flow. It shows how a far-field solution influences the computation of near-field drag, in particular, in high-lift conditions. Finally, an application to a complex high-lift three-dimensional configuration of an alternative method for the computation of the lift-induced drag is discussed. The method is based on the integration of the Lamb-vector field.