Copyright © 2010 Boeing. All rights reserved D. N. Ball HPC User Forum – Beijing, China October...

HPC User Forum – Beijing, ChinaOctober 30, 2010 1

Copyright © 2010 Boeing. All rights reserved D. N. Ball

The Impact ofHigh Performance Computing

On the DevelopmentOf Boeing Commercial Airplanes

Douglas N. BallChief Engineer

Aerodynamic Characteristics and Flight Performance



Pre-1960 Environment

• No real computing effort

• Airplanes designed entirely through wind tunnel and flight testing



DC-8 Installed Nacelle Drag

Unexpected drag rise



1960’s – early Supercomputing

• Early supercomputer – Control Data CDC 6600

• Early linear potential flow– No viscosity– No rotationality– No shocks



737-100/200/200Adv

8% miss on drag level



747-100/200

.02 cruise Mach number miss



Late 70’s – Progress

• CDC 6600• First Cray 1

• Linear potential with coupled boundary layer– Include viscosity

• Early full potential and Euler codes with coupled boundary layer– Viscosity– Weak shocks– Rotational flows



757 and 767

Leading Edge LoadsHigher Than Predicted

Fuel mileage better than predicted



Late 80’s / early 90’s – Progress

• First Cray Y-MP

• Routine: Full potential and Euler with coupled boundary layer– Viscosity and rotationality

• Early full Navier Stoke codes



777 Issues - minor

Cruise Mach number

Airfoil aft loading

Stab and elevator effectiveness

Lateral control effectiveness



737-600/700/800/900 (NG)

Flaps up stall characteristics and thrust reverser flow



Late 90’s / early 2000’s – Progress

• Cray X1• Enter the PC Clusters

• Automated: Full potential and Euler with coupled boundary layer– Viscosity and rotationality

• Full Navier Stoke codes– Overset and unstructured grids

• High lift– More complex geometry and flow physics



The 787-8 and 747-8



38

18 11

77

767 737-300 777 737NG757 787

1980 state of the art Modern close couplednacelle installation,0.02 Mach faster than737-200

21% thicker fasterwing than 757,767 technology

Highly constrainedwing designFaster wing than737-300

Successfulmultipoint opti-mization design

CFD forLoads and

Stability andControl

11

Faster andmore efficientthan previousaircraft

Wind Tunnelvs. CFD

BoeingProducts

CFDTools

Increased computational capability & accuracy

Less testing, lower cost, better products

base 4x

60x

CFD runs

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

BoeingTools A502 A488 TRANAIR

TRANAIROptimization

TLNS3D-MBZEUS

CFL3D/ZEUSCFD++

Unstructured adaptive grid

3D-NS

Cartesian Grid Tech

Wings Tested

COPYRIGHT © 2005 THE BOEING COMPANY

CFD Has Significantly Improvedthe Wing Development Process

Copyright © 2010 Boeing. All rights reserved



Conclusions

Prior to 1980 errors often occurred in the cruise portion of the flight envelope. These were often expensive and time-consuming to fix, and they directly affected the value of the airplane to the airline.

Since 1980 we’ve been pretty good with attached flow performance prediction. Focus is now on expanding the use of CFD throughout the flight envelope (loads, stability and control, high lift)

The advances in both computational hardware and software have enabled better airplanes to be designed, in less time and cost and with fewer surprises in flight test

Copyright © 2010 Boeing. All rights reserved D. N. Ball HPC User Forum – Beijing, China October...

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