Flow around an Aircraft Model—Comparison between Hydrodynamic Tunnel Tests and Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the results obtained using the computational fluid dynamic method and a hydrodynamic tunnel. The aerodynamic properties of the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark aircraft were subjected to both qualitative and quantitative assessment. In both cases, the same geometric model of the aircraft was used. For the hydrodynamic tunnel tests, the model was 3D printed, while for the CFD simulations, the geometry was imported into ANSYS Fluent 2021 R2 software. During quantitative studies, aerodynamic characteristics, including the coefficients of lift, drag, and pitching moment for the aircraft, were determined over a wide range of angles of attack. In turn, flow field images and pathline visualization of the vortex were obtained following qualitative studies. The comparative analysis showed that high consistency between the simulation and experimental results was achieved.