Numerical Simulation of Aircraft Aerodynamics with Error Quantification

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Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an important tool used by engineers to understand and ultimately control air flow around man-made objects in industries as broad ranging as air travel, ground transportation, building design, and green energy. Better understanding of such air flows early in the design process can significantly improve the quality of the final product and while reducing the time and expense required to develop it. My research group focuses on developing new techniques for CFD for flow simulation for complete aircraft, including ways to assess the error in the computed solution. We have demonstrated the ability to compute highly accurate solutions very efficiently for two-dimensional aerodynamic problems. We also have expertise in using unstructured meshes to deal effectively with complex geometries, including creating such meshes from data produced by computer-aided design software. Recently, we have begun work on techniques for error estimation, including applications in error reduction, and the impact of mesh characteristics on error. My medium term research goal for my group is to bring together our work in these related areas so that we can consistently produce reliable simulation results for analysis and design in external aerodynamics. The key technical challenge here is not just in obtaining a numerical solution to a particular physical problem, but in reducing as much as possible the need for a human user to intervene and iterate during this process, while at the same time being able to reduce and to provide quantitative bounds on the error in output quantities of engineering interest, including for example forces and heat fluxes. Taken together, these capabilities will have a significant impact on the reliability and robustness of CFD simulations, which in turn will open their use to a wider range of industrial analysis and design applications.