Aerodynamic Optimization of an Aerial Pod

Abstract

The incompressible, steady, turbulent flow around an external aerial pod was analyzed in order to optimize the pod's geometry for minimum drag, which is important to reduce its effect on the aircraft's performance. The computations were conducted in a 2-dimentional axisymmetric and 3-dimentional computational domains using ANSYS-Fluent k-ω SST turbulence model for high Reynolds number, Re > 106• The flow properties were selected at sea level conditions. The results revealed that both 2D and 3D simulations showed similar qualitative behavior for the drag variation along different dimensions of the pod. The optimal length of the pod in 2D was 11% shorter than the 3D simulations. Moreover, the 2D simulations over-predicted the drag compared to the same cases in 3D.