MEGAFLOW: Parallel complete aircraft CFD

As a consequence of the worldwide competition in the aircraft market requirements for the accurate prediction of aerodynamic performance and optimization of configurations have increased very much. More sophisticated wind tunnel as well as high quality CFD techniques have become necessary and essential tools for aircraft industry aerodynamic development groups. This requires an ongoing struggle for efficiency improvements where parallel computing is one of the major issues. This paper considers the MEGAFLOW activities in the area of parallel flow solvers including their application and use in the industrial framework. It describes the parallelization principles for the structured multi-block Navier-Stokes code FLOWer and the unstructured Navier-Stokes code TAU. Principle results for industrial applications are given with respect to efficiency, speed-up, load balancing, etc. Computational examples demonstrate the quality of the solvers for 3D flow over wing/body configurations as well as complete transport aircraft. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.