Services

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Capabilities Document (PDF)

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is the process of calculating how a fluid, usually air, flows around an object. There are several different methods. These include quick and simple lifting line to full Navier-Stokes volume flow with heat transfer and reacting gas chemistry.

Computational Fluid Dynamics Design Services

  • External and Internal Aerodynamic Flow Modeling
  • Subsonic, Transonic, Supersonic, Hypersonic including Chemical Reacting Non-Equilibrium Flows
  • Aerodynamic Impact of a Proposed Change
  • Aircraft Performance Prediction, Measurement, and Model Validation
  • Evaluation of Aircraft Stability and Control
  • Propulsion Installation Effects
  • Installed Performance of Jet Engines
  • Lofting
  • Wind Tunnel Testing
  • Low-Speed, Transonic, High-Speed Wind Tunnel Planning, Testing and Result Analysis
  • Free Surface Interaction
  • Preliminary Design Analysis

How Does TLG Ensure Accurate CFD Analysis?

TLG has extensive experience in practical CFD applications and has validated results against tunnel and flight test data whenever possible. While CFD programs have become more efficient, it is important to ensure the answers are correct. The application user must thoroughly understand the program, including the physics being solved and an extensive experience base of validation cases. Therefore, TLG CFD solutions are always sanity-checked against a simpler method, such as empirical integration, and reviewed by our in-house Chief Aerodynamicist.

What CFD Applications Does TLG Support?

There are now a huge number of non-aerospace CFD applications ranging from electronics cooling to soccer ball design. At TLG, our application experience is primarily in aircraft design and analysis including airfoil design, engine inlets, and full aircraft analysis at low speed, transonic, and supersonic Mach numbers. In addition, TLG has also analyzed railcars and underwater vehicles and continues to expand in this area.

CFD Tools

At TLG, we employ a range of CFD tools including MSES for 2D airfoil optimization and analysis, Vortex Lattice methods for stability derivatives and initial design, and the 3D full Navier-Stokes STAR-CCM+ flow solver which is capable of unsteady flow calculations with heat transfer and 6DOF fluid-body interaction.

TLG’s Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Pillars

TLG Computational Fluid Dynamics Pillars

Applied Aero Experts

  • TLG delivers more than just CFD results, we are also application experts!
    • Our CFD team includes three (3) PhDs and two (2) master’s degree professionals
    • Our leadership team includes five (5) DERs
  • TLG’s in-house multidisciplinary team offers expertise in stability & control, performance & handling qualities, loads, flutter, and more
  • Beyond CFD, our team has experience with wind tunnel and flight test programs that follow downstream of our CFD analysis
  • TLG is focused on engineering and supporting an overall program schedule from concept to delivery 
    • We use the appropriate level of fidelity at each stage of the program
    • So that you never waste time, we offer the experience of delivering actionable data products to internal & external teams

Industry-Leading Throughput

  • Our cloud-based computing architecture means on-premise clusters never restrict us
    • Amazon featured TLG as the first case study for the successful use of AWS for low-cost Aerospace HPC
    • We offer you the experience of running CPU- and GPU-based solvers in the cloud
  • Our burst-computing capability reliably to >10,000 cores simultaneously to support solver and case-level parallelism
  • Our throughput is about more than just the solver, it’s also about how fast your team can process the data
    • TLG has a mature set of automated processes to streamline convergence review, coefficient plotting, & detailed flow visualization
    • Never be surprised by your data again! Several experienced TLG engineers review ALL data before it is released to the customer
  • Our scalable process works for quick-look conceptual design work up to large aerodynamic databases

Accuracy Through Process

  • You will benefit from our mature best practices developed from experience and participation at AIAA CFD workshops
  • We can help you understand where accuracy is critical and how to maintain efficiency
    • A classic example is leading- and trailing-edge anisotropy in surface mesh design to capture large chordwise gradients when spanwise gradients are low
  • TLG has established review gates before any analysis is run or data is released
    • Detailed documentation of the CFD project scope will be shared with you

CFD Key application areas

  • Aerodynamic database generation >> from conceptual through certification
  • Aerodynamic design >> 2d airfoil design to a clean-sheet aircraft
  • Full speed range >> low-subsonic to high-supersonic
  • Aeroelastic effects >> STAR-Beam, in-house aeroelastic expertise in loads, dynamics, and flutter groups with FAA DERs
  • Safe separation analysis >> interference databases to fully coupled unsteady, 6-DOF simulations in CFD
  • Wind Tunnel support >> …
  • SME support & CFD process audits