Computation of Aircraft Flow Fields by a Multigrid Euler Method

An algorithm for computing transonic flow fields about fighter-type aircraft is described in the paper. The compressible Euler equations are solved numerically using a vertex-based, finite volume multigrid scheme. The space around the aircraft is discretized with a single-block H-0 mesh which is generated by the union of separate Omeshes around successive cross sections of the aircraft. The discretized equations are integrated via a five-stage Runga-Kutta scheme, and a variety of techniques -local time-step maximization, residual smoothing and enthalpy damping -are used along with a multigrid scheme to accelerate convergence to the steady state. The algorithm has proved to be very efficient in practice, and several examples at transonic and supersonic free stream conditions are presented.