Applicability of Vortex Lattice Method and its Comparison with High Fidelity Tools

Vortex Lattice Method (VLM) is well known for inviscid aerodynamics computation and is extensively used in aviation industry and academia. The solver possesses extensive applications in aircraft conceptual design phase. Potential flow theory-based solver is used to analyze lift and induced drag coefficients of DLR-F4 wing. CFD simulations and VLM based solver computations are carried out for Mach = 0.75 and Re = 3 × 106. Aerodynamic characteristics, such as lift and drag performance, are compared with CFD and Wind tunnel test data. The analysis reveals that VLM results are in close agreement with computational and experimental data at low to moderate angles of attack. However, results begin to deviate at high angle of attack due to attached flow assumption in VLM based solver.