PREDICTION OF THE FLOW AROUND THE X-31 AIRCRAFT USING THREE DIFFERENT CFD METHODS

Kurzfassung

The investigations presented in this paper are carried out within the NATO RTO AVT-161 Task Group focused on the prediction of stability and control issues of UCAV and fighter type configurations using high fidelity methods like CFD. The use of the X-31 configuration is based on the DLR project SikMa dealing with maneuver simulation of fighter aircraft by multi-disciplinary coupling of CFD, CSM and flight mechanics. Within this project and within follow-on projects several steady state and unsteady dynamic wind tunnel tests are done. This comprehensive experimental data base is used within the AVT-161 Task Group for the flow solver verification and validation process. Even though research on fighter type aircraft with vortex dominated flow fields have been done for quite a number of years there are still open questions about the flow physics and the ability to predict the aerodynamics using CFD methods