Efficient Physics-Based Analysis and Design for Complex Aerospace Configurations

Overview

NASA programs face a diverse set of complex aerodynamics problems, ranging from low-speed/high-lift concepts for the nation's aeronautics fleet, to mixed-speed rotorcraft applications, to high-speed space launch and re-entry vehicles. Tackling these problems requires a first-principles, physics-based analysis toolset that can support simulations involving both a wide range of speed regimes and multidisciplinary effects. These intensive software tools must exploit the most advanced numerical methods, physical models, and software design practices. The tools place an enormous burden on computational frameworks and must efficiently utilize the most powerful high-performance computing systems available. The FUN3D toolset is being actively developed at NASA Langley Research Center to meet these far-reaching Agency challenges.

Project Details

FUN3D is an unstructured-grid computational fluid dynamics suite used to tackle NASA's most complex aerodynamics problems. The toolset offers multidisciplinary capabilities, incorporating models of varying fidelity for structural effects, multi-body dynamics, acoustics, radiation, and ablation. FUN3D provides the world's foremost adjoint-based design capability, enabling formal optimization of time-dependent moving-body simulations involving turbulent flows. The adjoint formulation is also used to perform rigorous mesh adaptation and error estimation. To date, FUN3D has been successfully scaled to 80,000 cores for computational grids containing billions of elements.

Results and Impact

FUN3D is widely used to support major national research and engineering efforts, both within NASA and among groups across U.S. industry, the Department of Defense, and academia. A past collaboration with the Department of Energy received the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize, which recognizes outstanding achievements in high-performance computing. Key applications that FUN3D currently supports include:

• NASA aeronautics research spanning fixed-wing applications, rotary-wing vehicles, and supersonic boom mitigation efforts.
• Design and analysis of NASA's new Space Launch System.
• Analysis of re-entry deceleration concepts, such as supersonic retro-propulsion and hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator systems, for NASA space missions.
• Development of commercial crew spacecraft at companies such as SpaceX.
• Timely analysis of vehicles and weapons systems for U.S. military efforts around the world.
• Efficient green energy concept development, such as wind turbine design and drag minimization for long-haul trucking.

Role of High-End Computing Resources

FUN3D simulations require frequent solutions of billions of simultaneous equations. These intensive calculations can only be efficiently accomplished using high-end computing resources, such as the Pleiades supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility.