UNSTRUCTURED MESH DRAG PREDICTION BASED ON DRAG DECOMPOSITION

Unstructured mesh drag prediction is discussed using a drag decomposition method. This method decomposes total drag into wave, profile, induced and spurious drag components, the latter resulting from numerical diffusion and errors. Computational results show that the method reliably predicts drag and is capable of meaningful drag decomposition. The accuracy of drag prediction is increased by eliminating the spurious drag component from the total drag. It is also confirmed that the physical drag components are almost independent of the mesh resolution or scheme modification.