Advances in scientific computing have made modelling and simulation an important part of the decision-making process in engineering, science, and public policy. This book provides a comprehensive and systematic development of the basic concepts, principles, and procedures for verification and validation of models and simulations. The emphasis is placed on models that are described by partial differential and integral equations and the simulations that result from their numerical solution. The methods described can be applied to a wide range of technical fields, from the physical sciences, engineering and technology and industry, through to environmental regulations and safety, product and plant safety, financial investing, and governmental regulations. This book will be genuinely welcomed by researchers, practitioners, and decision makers in a broad range of fields, who seek to improve the credibility and reliability of simulation results. It will also be appropriate either for university courses or for independent study.

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Verification and Validation in Scientific Computing

Developers of computer codes, analysts who use the codes, and decision makers who rely on the results of the analyses face a critical question: How should confidence in modeling and simulation be critically assessed? Verification and validation (V&V) of computational simulations are the primary methods for building and quantifying this confidence. Briefly, verification is the assessment of the accuracy of the solution to a computational model. Validation is the assessment of the accuracy of a computational simulation by comparison with experimental data. In verification, the relationship of the simulation to the real world is not an issue. In validation, the relationship between computation and the real world, i.e., experimental data, is the issue.

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Verification, Validation, and Predictive Capability in Computational Engineering and Physics

This report documents the results of a study to address the long range, strategic planning required by NASA's Revolutionary Computational Aerosciences (RCA) program in the area of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), including future software and hardware requirements for High Performance Computing (HPC). Specifically, the "Vision 2030" CFD study is to provide a knowledge-based forecast of the future computational capabilities required for turbulent, transitional, and reacting flow simulations across a broad Mach number regime, and to lay the foundation for the development of a future framework and/or environment where physics-based, accurate predictions of complex turbulent flows, including flow separation, can be accomplished routinely and efficiently in cooperation with other physics-based simulations to enable multi-physics analysis and design. Specific technical requirements from the aerospace industrial and scientific communities were obtained to determine critical capability gaps, anticipated technical challenges, and impediments to achieving the target CFD capability in 2030. A preliminary development plan and roadmap were created to help focus investments in technology development to help achieve the CFD vision in 2030.

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CFD Vision 2030 Study: A Path to Revolutionary Computational Aerosciences

Giga-voxel-resolution computational morphogenesis is used to optimize the internal structure of a full-scale aeroplane wing, yielding light-weight designs with more similarities to animal bone structures than to current aeroplane wing designs. Computational morphogenesis is used to design the best possible shapes and material distributions for the desired structural properties, such as high strength at minimal weight. In plants and animals, morphogenesis occurs naturally through slow genetic evolution. In engineering, a much faster iterative approach for optimum material distribution has been adopted, called topology optimization. So far, it has been used to calculate only small or simple structures owing to limited resolution. Niels Aage et al. have developed a morphogenesis tool that can be run on a supercomputer and can calculate two orders of magnitude more voxels (the three-dimensional equivalents of pixels) than was previously attainable. This makes it possible to design structures with unprecedented detail, yielding new insights into optimal material distribution. The authors calculate an optimized full aircraft wing structure with remarkable structural detail at several length scales, which displays similarities to naturally occurring bone structures such as those seen in bird beaks. The new tool could inspire surprising design approaches for a range of structures, including wind turbine blades, tower masts and bridges. In the design of industrial products ranging from hearing aids to automobiles and aeroplanes, material is distributed so as to maximize the performance and minimize the cost. Historically, human intuition and insight have driven the evolution of mechanical design, recently assisted by computer-aided design approaches. The computer-aided approach known as topology optimization enables unrestricted design freedom and shows great promise with regard to weight savings, but its applicability has so far been limited to the design of single components or simple structures, owing to the resolution limits of current optimization methods1,2. Here we report a computational morphogenesis tool, implemented on a supercomputer, that produces designs with giga-voxel resolution—more than two orders of magnitude higher than previously reported. Such resolution provides insights into the optimal distribution of material within a structure that were hitherto unachievable owing to the challenges of scaling up existing modelling and optimization frameworks. As an example, we apply the tool to the design of the internal structure of a full-scale aeroplane wing. The optimized full-wing design has unprecedented structural detail at length scales ranging from tens of metres to millimetres and, intriguingly, shows remarkable similarity to naturally occurring bone structures in, for example, bird beaks. We estimate that our optimized design corresponds to a reduction in mass of 2–5 per cent compared to currently used aeroplane wing designs, which translates into a reduction in fuel consumption of about 40–200 tonnes per year per aeroplane. Our morphogenesis process is generally applicable, not only to mechanical design, but also to flow systems3, antennas4, nano-optics5 and micro-systems6,7.

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Giga-voxel computational morphogenesis for structural design

Anisotropic grid adaptation for functional outputs: application to two-dimensional viscous flows

The development of a wing/body/nacelle/pylon/horizontal-tail configuration for a common research model is presented, with focus on the aerodynamic design of the wing. Here, a contemporary transonic supercritical wing design is developed with aerodynamic characteristics that are well behaved and of high performance for configurations with and without the nacelle/pylon group. The horizontal tail is robustly designed for dive Mach number conditions and is suitably sized for typical stability and control requirements. The fuselage is representative of a wide/body commercial transport aircraft; it includes a wing-body fairing, as well as a scrubbing seal for the horizontal tail. The nacelle is a single-cowl, high by-pass-ratio, flow-through design with an exit area sized to achieve a natural unforced mass-flow-ratio typical of commercial aircraft engines at cruise. The simplicity of this un-bifurcated nacelle geometry will facilitate grid generation efforts of subsequent CFD validation exercises. Detailed aerodynamic performance data has been generated for this model; however, this information is presented in such a manner as to not bias CFD predictions planned for the fourth AIAA CFD Drag Prediction Workshop, which incorporates this common research model into its blind test cases. The CFD results presented include wing pressure distributions with and without the nacelle/pylon, ML/D trend lines, and drag-divergence curves; the design point for the wing/body configuration is within 1% of its max-ML/D. Plans to test the common research model in the National Transonic Facility and the Ames 11-ft wind tunnels are also discussed.

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Development of a Common Research Model for Applied CFD Validation Studies

Results from the Fourth AIAA Drag Prediction Workshop (DPW-IV) are summarized. The workshop focused on the prediction of both absolute and differential drag levels for wing-body and wing-body-horizontal-tail configurations that are representative of transonic transport air- craft. Numerical calculations are performed using industry-relevant test cases that include lift- specific flight conditions, trimmed drag polars, downwash variations, dragrises and Reynolds- number effects. Drag, lift and pitching moment predictions from numerous Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics methods are presented. Solutions are performed on structured, unstructured and hybrid grid systems. The structured-grid sets include point- matched multi-block meshes and over-set grid systems. The unstructured and hybrid grid sets are comprised of tetrahedral, pyramid, prismatic, and hexahedral elements. Effort is made to provide a high-quality and parametrically consistent family of grids for each grid type about each configuration under study. The wing-body-horizontal families are comprised of a coarse, medium and fine grid; an optional extra-fine grid augments several of the grid families. These mesh sequences are utilized to determine asymptotic grid-convergence characteristics of the solution sets, and to estimate grid-converged absolute drag levels of the wing-body-horizontal configuration using Richardson extrapolation.

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Summary of the Fourth AIAA CFD Drag Prediction Workshop

Results from the Second AIAA Drag PredictionWorkshop are summarized. The workshop focused on absolute
and configuration delta drag prediction of the DLR, German Aerospace Research Center F6 geometry, which is
representative of transport aircraft designed for transonic flight. Both wing–body and wing–body–nacelle–pylon
configurations are considered. Comparisons are made using industry relevant test cases that include single-point
conditions, drag polars, and drag-rise curves. Drag, lift, and pitching moment predictions from several different
Reynolds averagedNavier–Stokes computational fluid dynamics codes are presented and compared to experimental
data. Solutions on multiblock structured, unstructured, and overset structured grids using a variety of turbulence
models are considered. Results of a grid-refinement study and a comparison of tripped transition vs fully turbulent
boundary-layer computations are reported.

Data Summary from Second AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Drag Prediction Workshop

Results from the Third AIAA Drag Prediction Workshop (DPW-III) are summarized. The workshop focused on the prediction of both absolute and differential drag levels for wing-body and wing-alone configurations that are representative of transonic transport aircraft The baseline DLR-F6 wing-body geometry, previously used in DPW-II, is also augmented with a side-of-body fairing to help reduce the complexity of the flow physics in the wing-body juncture region. In addition, two new wing-alone geometries have been developed for DPW-III. Numerical calculations are performed using industry-relevant test cases that include lift-specific and fixed-alpha flight conditions, as well as full drag polars. Drag, lift, and pitching-moment predictions from numerous Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics methods are presented, focused on fully turbulent flows. Solutions are performed on structured, unstructured, and hybrid grid systems. The structured grid sets include point-matched multiblock meshes and overset grid systems. The unstructured and hybrid grid sets are composed of tetrahedral, pyramid, and prismatic elements. Effort was made to provide a high-quality and parametrically consistent family of grids for each grid type about each configuration under study. The wing-body families are composed of a coarse, medium, and fine grid, whereas the wing-alone families also include an extra-fine mesh. These mesh sequences are used to help determine how the provided flow solutions fare with respect to asymptotic grid convergence, and are used to estimate an absolute drag for each configuration.

Abridged Summary of the Third AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Drag Prediction Workshop

Results from the Fifth AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Drag Prediction Workshop are presented. As with past workshops, numerical calculations are performed using industry-relevant geometry, methodology, and test cases. This workshop focused on force/moment predictions for the NASA Common Research Model wing-body configuration, including a grid refinement study and an optional buffet study. The grid refinement study used a common grid sequence derived from a multiblock topology structured grid. Six levels of refinement were created, resulting in grids ranging from 0.64×106 to 138×106 hexahedra, a much larger range than is typically seen. The grids were then transformed into structured overset and hexahedral, prismatic, tetrahedral, and hybrid unstructured formats all using the same basic cloud of points. This unique collection of grids was designed to isolate the effects of grid type and solution algorithm by using identical point distributions. This study showed reduced scatter and standard deviation fr...

Richard A. Wahls

Papers

Development of a Common Research Model for Applied CFD Validation Studies

Summary of the Fourth AIAA CFD Drag Prediction Workshop

Data Summary from Second AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Drag Prediction Workshop

Abridged Summary of the Third AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Drag Prediction Workshop

Summary of Data from the Fifth Computational Fluid Dynamics Drag Prediction Workshop