As global air travel expands rapidly to meet demand generated by economic growth, it is essential to continue to improve the efficiency of air transportation to reduce its carbon emissions and address concerns about climate change. Future transports must be ‘cleaner’ and designed to include technologies that will continue to lower engine emissions and reduce community noise. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) will be critical to enable the design of these new concepts. In general, the ability to simulate aerodynamic and reactive flows using CFD has progressed rapidly during the past several decades and has fundamentally changed the aerospace design process. Advanced simulation capabilities not only enable reductions in ground-based and flight-testing requirements, but also provide added physical insight, and enable superior designs at reduced cost and risk. In spite of considerable success, reliable use of CFD has remained confined to a small region of the operating envelope due, in part, to the inability of current methods to reliably predict turbulent, separated flows. Fortunately, the advent of much more powerful computing platforms provides an opportunity to overcome a number of these challenges. This paper summarizes the findings and recommendations from a recent NASA-funded study that provides a vision for CFD in the year 2030, including an assessment of critical technology gaps and needed development, and identifies the key CFD technology advancements that will enable the design and development of much cleaner aircraft in the future.

The second AIAA CFD High-Lift Prediction Workshop was held in San Diego, California, in June 2013. The goals of the workshop continued in the tradition of the first high-lift workshop: to assess the numerical prediction capability of current-generation computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology for swept, medium/high-aspect-ratio wings in landing/takeoff (high-lift) configurations. This workshop analyzed the flow over the DLR-F11 model in landing configuration at two different Reynolds numbers. Twenty-six participants submitted a total of 48 data sets of CFD results. A variety of grid systems (both structured and unstructured) were used. Trends due to grid density and Reynolds number were analyzed, and effects of support brackets were also included. This paper analyzes the combined results from all workshop participants. Comparisons with experimental data are made. A statistical summary of the CFD results is also included.

The first AIAA CFD High-Lift Prediction Workshop was held in Chicago, Illinois, in June 2010. The goals of the workshop included an assessment of the numerical prediction capability of current-generation computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology/codes for swept, medium/high-aspect-ratio wings in landing/takeoff (high-lift) configurations. Twenty-one participants from eight countries and 18 organizations submitted a total of 39 data sets of CFD results. A variety of grid systems (both structured and unstructured) were used. Trends due to flap angle were analyzed, and effects of grid family, grid density, solver, and turbulence model were addressed. Some participants also assessed the effects of support brackets used to attach the flap and slat to the main wing. This paper analyzes the combined results from all workshop participants. Comparisons with experimental data are made. A statistical summary of the CFD results is also included.

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