A Voxel-Based 2.5D Panel Method for Fluid-Dynamics Simulations

The Panel method is an approach for the estimation of the lift of 3D models which is faster than CFD. This can be useful especially in the conceptual design stage where several configurations should be evaluated in a reduced time with a limited computational cost. However, the meshing of the 3D body surface with rectangular panels can be a time-consuming activity because the designer should define from scratch a cloud of points that matches the external surfaces of the tested object to obtain consistent panelling. Therefore, a voxelization-based methodology has been developed to obtain the panels’ position, speeding up and automating the model preparation process. The obtained discretization has been integrated into a panel method available in the literature. Four case studies, of increasing complexity, have been analyzed to investigate the capability of the innovative voxel-based panel methodology. A parametric study has been carried out to study the effect of the voxel grid dimension on the accuracy of the results. Benchmarking values of lift coefficient obtained from literature or xFoil software have been used to evaluate the precision that can be achieved with this approach. The results show a good agreement between the voxel-based panel method and the literature when the overall pressure distributions and aerodynamic coefficient values are considered. Higher errors are noticed with drag.