Aerodynamic flow calculations with an accelerated FEM solver

Three dimensional incompressible viscous flows about complex shapes are studied solving full Navier-Stokes equations. A Finite Element Method with an explicit time marching scheme is implemented for development of a computer code. Since the flow Reynolds number is high, numerical viscosity, equivalent of streamwise upwinding, is added to the viscous terms of the momentum equations in order to stabilize the solution. The pressure field is determined from an auxiliary potential function satisfying the Poisson equation. The solution of the Poisson equation is performed with an accelerated element by element iteration based on the preconditioned conjugate gradient method. Comparison of the results on pressure distributions and aerodynamic force coefficients for various test cases are satisfactory for validation purposes. The code is, therefore, implemented for prediction of the drag and lifting forces and moments of complex shapes.