Precomputed Panel Solver for Aerodynamics Simulation

Haoran Xie, Takeo Igarashi, Kazunori Miyata
2018 ACM Transactions on Graphics  
In this article, we introduce an efficient and versatile numerical aerodynamics model for general three-dimensional geometry shapes in potential flow. The proposed model has low computational cost and achieves an accuracy of moderate fidelity for the aerodynamic loads for a given glider shape. In the geometry preprocessing steps of our model, lifting-wing surfaces are recognized, and wake panels are generated automatically along the trailing edges. The proposed aerodynamics model improves the
more » ... tential theory-based panel method. Furthermore, a new quadratic expression for aerodynamic forces and moments is proposed. It consists of geometrydependent aerodynamic coefficient matrices and has a continuous representation for the drag/lift-force coefficients. Our model enables natural and real-time aerodynamics simulations combined with general rigid-body simulators for interactive animation. We also present a design system for original gliders. It uses an assembly-based modeling interface and achieves interactive feedback by leveraging the partwise precomputation enabled by our method. We illustrate that one can easily design various flyable gliders using our system.
doi:10.1145/3185767 fatcat:amr7e437o5drtaft4v74paarwi