External Boundary Conditions for Three-Dimensional Problems of Computational Aerodynamics

We consider an unbounded steady-state flow of viscous fluid over a three-dimensional finite body or configuration of bodies. For the purpose of solving this flow numerically, we discretize the governing equations (Navier–Stokes) on a finite-difference grid. Prior to the discretization, we obviously need to truncate the original unbounded domain by introducing an artificial computational boundary at a finite distance from the body; otherwise, the number of discrete variables will not be finite. This artificial boundary is typically the external boundary of the domain covered by the grid. The flow problem (both continuous and discretized) formulated on the finite computational domain is clearly subdefinite unless supplemented by some artificial boundary conditions (ABCs) at the external computational boundary. In this paper, we present an innovative approach to constructing highly accurate ABCs for three-dimensional flow computations. The approach extends our previous technique developed for the two-dimensional case; it employs the finite-difference counterparts to Calderón’s pseudodifferential boundary projections calculated in the framework of the difference potentials method (DPM) of Ryaben’kii. The resulting ABCs appear spatially nonlocal but are particularly easy to implement along with the existing flow solvers. The new boundary conditions have been successfully combined with the NASA-developed production code TLNS3D and used for the analysis of wing-shaped configurations in subsonic and transonic flow regimes. As demonstrated by the computational experiments and comparison with the standard local methods, the DPM-based ABCs allow one to greatly reduce the size of the computational domain while still maintaining high accuracy of the numerical solution. Moreover, they may provide for a noticeable speedup of multigrid convergence.