CFD

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 5, May 2013)
Flow Analysis over an F-16 Aircraft Using Computational Fluid

Dynamics
Manish Sharma1, T. Ratna Reddy2, Ch. Indira Priyadarsini3
1,2,3
Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India
Abstract In the current era of globalization every The pilot has excellent flight control of the F-16 through
prosperous nation in this world wishes to develop a fast its "fly-by-wire" system. Electrical wires relay commands,
moving aircraft with a high lift coefficient and low drag replacing the usual cables and linkage controls. For easy
coefficient, which helps them to enhance their military force and accurate control of the aircraft during high G-force
and strengthens its civilizations foundation. The purpose of
combat manoeuvres, a side stick controller is used instead
this study is to examine the viscous, incompressible and
steady-state flow over the F-16 aircraft using computer of the conventional centre-mounted stick. Hand pressure on
modelling techniques and to compare the modelled results the side stick controller sends electrical signals to actuators
with the experimental results done with the help of wind of flight control surfaces such as ailerons and rudder.
tunnel. This paper outlines the development of a
computational model of the F-16 model in modelling software
and then the creation of a finite computational domain,
segmentation of this domain into discrete intervals,
application of the boundary condition such as Mach number
or velocity and then obtaining the plots and results for
coefficient of pressure, lift coefficient, drag coefficient, etc.
The aircraft being a military aircraft travels at speed of Mach
2, which is around 1,500 mph at an altitude of 50,000 ft. This
paper will give the future generation to think in a manner to
develop the aerospace field and the CFD field too.
Keywords ANSYS Fluent 14, ANSYS ICEM CFD 14,

Drag Coefficient (CD), F-16 Aircraft, Lift Coefficient (CL),
Mach number and Velocity.
I. INTRODUCTION
Figure 1: Lockheed F-16 Fight Falcon.
A. F-16 Aircraft
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a combat, multi-role fighter B. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
aircraft. It is highly manoeuvrable and has proven itself in Computational Fluid Dynamics, more commonly known
air-to-air combat and air-to -Surface attack. With a full load as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical
of internal fuel, the F-16 can withstand up to nine G's -- methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that
nine times the force of gravity -- which exceeds the involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the
capability of other current fighter aircraft. It provides a calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids
relatively low-cost, high-performance weapon system for and gases with surfaces defined by boundary conditions.
the United States. In an air combat role, the F-16's With high-speed supercomputers, better solutions can be
manoeuvrability and combat radius (distance it can fly to achieved. Ongoing research yields software that improves
enter air combat, stay, fight, and return) exceed that of all the accuracy and speed of complex simulation scenarios
potential threat fighter aircraft. It can locate targets is all such as transonic or turbulent flows. Initial validation of
weather conditions and detect low flying aircraft in radar such software is performed using a wind tunnel with the
ground clutter. The cockpit and its bubble canopy give the final validation coming in full-scale testing, e.g. flight tests.
pilot unobstructed forward and upward vision, and greatly The fundamental basis of almost all CFD problems is the
improved vision over the side and to the rear. The seat-back NavierStokes equations, which define any single-phase
angle was expanded from the usual 13 degrees to 30 fluid flow. These equations can be simplified by removing
degrees, increasing pilot comfort and gravity force terms describing viscosity to yield the Euler equations.
tolerance.
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Further simplification, by removing terms describing
vorticity yields the full potential equations. Finally, for
small perturbations in subsonic and supersonic flows (not
transonic or hypersonic) these equations can be linearized
to yield the linearized potential equations.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Modeling of the F-16 Aircraft
The modeling of the F-16 Aircraft, which is used in this
paper, is done using Solidworks 2012. It is a solid model
over which the external flow analysis is done. Some of the
sketch commands used; in this particular aircraft modeling
are line, circle, ellipse, spline, etc. And the feature
commands used are loft boss, sweep boss, extrude cut,
Figure 3: Modeling of the Continuum in ANSYS Workbench 14.
mirror, etc. While modelling this aircraft intensive care
must be taken since any improper way of modelling this B. Meshing of the Continuum
may lead to overlapping of the geometry. Hence it should The meshing of the aircraft is done using ANSYS ICEM
be seen that not two geometrical entities intersect each CFD 14. In this the continuum from ANSYS Workbench is
other. This kind of care is necessary at this stage itself imported, then the continuum is divided into different parts
because later when meshing is done it gives enormous like inlet, outlet, symmetry, wall and F-16 and the required
number of errors and would result in poor quality mesh. meshing conditions are applied and the continuum is
meshed.
Figure 2: Modeling of F-16 Aircraft using Solidworks 2012.
For a CFD analysis the body should be enclosed in a

Figure 4: Meshing of the Continuum in ANSYS ICEM CFD 14.
continuum where in the boundary conditions are applied.
This enclosure around the aircraft is made in ANSYS The aircraft volume is given a fine mesh size of 5mm
Workbench 14. The enclosure is only made for the half since it is of most importance and of complex geometry
section of the aircraft, since the aircraft is symmetrical and the rest of the continuum is given a mesh size of
about the YZ plane. Hence this saves the computational 15mm. The difference between the element size can be
time. Then the aircraft is subtracted from the enclosure to seen in fig 5.
get the complete continuum.
340
The outlet boundary condition is given as pressure and
its value is given as 0 Pa. The rest of the faces of the
continuum are mentioned as wall or symmetry, which
means that these faces are under no-slip condition i.e. there
is zero velocity on these faces. This no-slip condition
means that the flow conditions will not apply outside these
walls and adjacent to these walls.
4. Solution
Once the boundary conditions are set, the solution
methods and controls are set for this simulation. The
solution method set for this is the coupled solver. And as
for the solution controls the courant number is set to 0.25
and the under relaxation factors for momentum and
pressure are set as 0.75 and for the turbulent kinetic energy,
Figure 5: Element size difference between the Aircraft and the turbulent dissipation rate and turbulent viscosity is set to
Continuum. 0.8.
Once the meshing of the continuum is done it is then
exported to ANSYS Fluent 14, where in the flow analysis III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
over this F-16 aircraft is done. The expected graphical results are set to residuals, lift
coefficient and drag coefficient. The contour results are for
C. Simulation of the Continuum the pressure and turbulent kinetic energy. The vector plots
The simulation of this continuum is done in ANSYS are plotted to view the distribution of velocity throughout
Fluent 14. In this initially the meshing of the continuum is the continuum.
checked and once the software approves it, the models,
materials and boundary conditions are set. A. Graphs
1. Model 1. Residual Plots

The model used for this kind of simulation is the k-
model. This is a two equation model in which one equation
corresponds to the turbulent kinetic energy (k) and the
other is the Specific dissipation rate ().
2. Materials
The working fluid in this simulation is air and is
considered to act on the aircraft at an altitude of 50,000 ft.
Only density is considered as the material property of the
air and is constant, 1.225 kg/m3.
3. Boundary Conditions
The important boundary conditions in an External Flow
Analysis are Mach number or velocity at inlet of the
continuum and pressure at the outlet of the continuum.
According to the specifications of the F-16 Aircraft,
provided by the Lockheed Martin Industry which
manufactures this aircraft, the speed of the aircraft is Mach
Figure 6: Residuals Plot in ANSYS Fluent 14.
1.5 at sea level and Mach 2 at altitude of 50,000 ft.
Therefore, the inlet boundary condition for the continuum It can be seen that the residual results have converged at
is given as Mach 2 i.e. velocity is equal to 680 m/s and the 160 iterations.
speed of sound at this altitude is 334.72 m/s.
341
2. Lift Coefficient Plot B. Contour Plots
1. Pressure Plot
Figure 7: Lift Coefficient Plot in ANSYS Fluent 14.
It can be seen that the lift coefficient has increased from Figure 9: Contours of Static Pressure in ANSYS Fluent 14.
a negative value and remained constant. This due to the fact
that initially the weight of the aircraft is less than the lift One can see that at some places pressure is high and it
force acting on the aircraft. can also be noted that this is due to the fact that some
places in the design of the aircraft have sharp edges,
3. Drag Coefficient Plot corners and flat surfaces. This can be reduced by refining
the design and seeing that there arent any such errors in
the geometry of the aircraft.
2. Turbulent Kinetic Energy Plot
Figure 8: Drag Coefficient Plot in ANSYS Fluent 14.
It can be seen that the drag coefficient has increased

from a negative value and remained constant. This is due to
the fact that as the flow over the aircraft increases and
velocity or speed of the aircraft increases the Thrust Force Figure 10: Contours of Turbulent Kinetic Energy in ANSYS
acting on the aircraft increases and the Drag Force also Fluent 14.
increases.
342
It can be seen that the Turbulent Kinetic Energy It can be seen that the velocity at the top of the Aircraft
increases as the curvature in the shape of the aircraft is more than the velocity at the bottom. This is due to the
increases. It can be seen that Turbulent Kinetic Energy is fact that for an aerodynamic shape of a body the lower
high at nozzle of the aircraft and this is due to a step portion experiences high pressure and low velocity and the
provided at the bottom of the tail wing. If there are upper portion experiences low pressure and high velocity.
variations in the design and there are more ups and downs
in the design then the turbulence increases and yields in the IV. CONCLUSION
increase of the turbulent kinetic energy. After conducting the Computational Fluid Dynamics
C. Vector Plots Analysis for the F-16 Aircraft this is compared with the
experimental results done by NASA and are mentioned in
1. Velocity Vector Plot for the Complete Continuum the paper Computational Modelling of Steady,
Compressible and Viscous Flow for the F-16XL Fighter
Aircraft and after comparing these two set of results it is
noted that they have a good co-relation and comparability
among them. And as it is so the purpose of this project is
fulfilled.
V. FUTURE SCOPE
The future scope of this project lies in the fact that the
aerodynamic analysis of an aircraft is a vast field of
research and development. So, it can be seen that the R&D
can be done in the fields of aero-acoustics, fluid structure
interactions, etc. For this project the flow is assumed to be
incompressible and for a zero degree angle of attack. So the
research can be done for compressible flow and various
Figure 11: Velocity Vectors for the Continuum in ANSYS Fluent 14.
values of angle of attack.
It can be seen that the variations in the velocity is at
aircraft and in the rest of the continuum it remains constant. REFERENCES
This is due to the curvature of the aircraft and that the rest [1] Justin Whitt. 2006, Computational Modelling of Steady,
Compressible and Viscous Flow For The F-16XL Aircraft.
of the continuum doesnt have any shape and is assumed to
be filled with air. [2] Adam Entsminger, David Gallagher and Will Graf. 2004, General
Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.
2. Velocity Vector for the Aircraft [3] Ying Huo, Model of F-16 Fighter Aircraft - Equation of Motions.
[4] Lars Sonneveldt. 2006, Non-Linear F-16 Model Description.
[5] Cd-Adapco, Hypersonic Drag Polar Validation in STAR-CCM+.
[6] Ghaffari, Farhad, December 1994. Navier-Stokes, Flight, and Wind
Tunnel Flow Analysis for the F/A-18 Aircraft.. NASA TP-3478.
[7] Advanced Aircraft Analysis Software, Design, Analysis, and
Research Corp., KS.
[8] Murat Uygun and Ismail H. Tuncer. Viscous Flow Solutions over
CN-235 Cargo Aircraft.
[9] Cook, M.V. 1997. Flight Dynamics Principles. Butterworth-
Heinemann.
[10] Droste, Carl S., Walker, James E, The General Dynamics Case
Study on the F-16 Fly-By-Wire Flight Control System, AIAA
Professional Study Series.
[11] F-16 Fighting Falcon Specifications, http://www.f16falcon.com/
Figure 12: Velocity Vectors for the Aircraft in ANSYS Fluent 14.
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International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Flow Analysis over an F-16 Aircraft Using Computational Fluid

Keywords ANSYS Fluent 14, ANSYS ICEM CFD 14,

Figure 2: Modeling of F-16 Aircraft using Solidworks 2012.

For a CFD analysis the body should be enclosed in a

1. Model 1. Residual Plots

Figure 7: Lift Coefficient Plot in ANSYS Fluent 14.

Figure 8: Drag Coefficient Plot in ANSYS Fluent 14.

It can be seen that the drag coefficient has increased

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