Best Practices for Aero-Database CFD Simulations of Ares V Ascent

In support of NASA’s next generation heavy lift launch vehicle (HLLV), a simulation protocol has been developed to generate databases of the aerodynamic force and moment coefficients for HLLV ascent. The simulation protocol has been established and validated with a series of computational analyses that ensure best practices are achieved. Results of the sensitivity analyses using a full-scale Ares V flight vehicle are next applied in a validation study with three scaled-down Ares V wind tunnel test articles. Three independent computational fluid dynamic (CFD) flow solvers were included in the study. These included OVERFLOW, a viscous Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver for structured overset grids, USM3D, a viscous RANS solver for unstructured tetrahedral grids, and Cart3D, an inviscid Euler solver using unstructured Cartesian grids and adjoint-based adaptive mesh refinement. First, a series of tests was independently performed for each applicable CFD code, including a grid convergence study and sensitivity studies of turbulence models and convective flux discretization methods. Once the proper grid resolution, physical models, and numerical parameters were determined for each of the codes, the process was continued with a code-to-code comparison. Each CFD code was applied to the Ares V flight vehicle at several points in the ascent trajectory, with all three codes obtaining consistent force and moment predictions. Finally, an extensive validation of the CFD approach was performed, in which the three codes were used to generate aero-databases of force and moment coefficients for three distinct Ares V wind tunnel test articles. These computations were performed concurrent to the experimental databases generated in the 14-inch wind tunnel at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Comparisons of the CFD results with the experimental data are reported and the viscous flow results compare well.