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Virginia Tech

An Analysis of Using CFD in Conceptual Aircraft Design

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The evaluation of how Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package may be incorporated into a conceptual design method is performed. The repeatability of the CFD solution as well as the accuracy of the calculated aerodynamic coefficients and pressure distributions was also evaluated on two different wing-body models. The overall run times of three different mesh densities was also evaluated to investigate if the mesh density could be reduced enough so that the computational stage of the CFD cycle may become affordable to use in the conceptual design stage. A farfield method was derived and used in this analysis to calculate the lift and drag coefficients. The CFD solutions were also compared with two methods currently used in conceptual design - the vortex lattice based program Vorview and ACSYNT. The unstructured Euler based CFD package FELISA was used in this study.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Mechanical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2002

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • McCormick, Daniel John
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Myklebust, Arvid
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Gelhausen, Paul
  • Wilson, Sam III

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-06042002-112432
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33409

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

McCormick, Daniel John. An Analysis of Using CFD in Conceptual Aircraft Design. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/33409