Evaluation of three numerical methods for propulsion integration studies on transonic transport configurations

An effort has been undertaken at the NASA Langley Research Center to assess the capabilities of available computational methods for use in propulsion integration design studies of transonic transport aircraft, particularly of pylon/nacelle combinations which exhibit essentially no interference drag. The three computer codes selected represent state-of-the-art computational methods for analyzing complex configurations at subsonic and transonic flight conditions. These are: EULER, a finite volume solution of the Euler equation; VSAERO, a panel solution of the Laplace equation; and PPW, a finite difference solution of the small disturbance transonic equations. In general, all three codes have certain capabilities that allow them to be of some value in predicting the flows about transport configurations, but all have limitations. Until more accurate methods are available, careful application and interpretation of the results of these codes are needed.