Detached-Eddy Simulation of a Wide-Body Commercial Aircraft in High-Lift Configuration

Numerical prediction of the aerodynamic properties of high-lift configurations has become an important topic for the computational fluid dynamics community in the last years. The present paper shows and discusses a numerical study of the DLR-F11 high-lift configuration that was used as a model reference in the Second High-Lift Prediction Workshop, organized by the AIAA in 2013. Case 1 of the workshop was simulated with the commercial software ANSYS Fluent v14.5, using the Spalart-Allmaras (fully turbulent Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) model. Numerical results showed good agreement for angles of attack lower than 18 deg; however, above this value, simulations were not accurate enough near to C-L max. To study the influence of the turbulence model in the dynamics of the flow and the numerical prediction of the aerodynamic properties near to C-L max, the original grids were adapted and a hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes/large-eddy simulation model (detached-eddy simulation based on Spalart-Allmaras) was used. Numerical results for the detached-eddy simulation showed a small change in the prediction of the aerodynamic properties near to C-L max, as well as improved vorticity resolution in the wake.