Near-Field Wall-Modeled Large-Eddy Simulation of the NASA X-59 Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator

TL;DR

This study uses wall-modeled large-eddy simulation to predict near-field noise of the NASA X-59 aircraft, comparing results with RANS simulations to evaluate accuracy and computational efficiency.

Contribution

It demonstrates WMLES effectiveness in near-field noise prediction for the X-59, highlighting its comparable accuracy to RANS with potential advantages in computational cost.

Findings

WMLES predicts near-field pressure similar to RANS.

Discrepancies observed downstream, possibly due to shock interactions.

WMLES offers a promising alternative for aircraft noise prediction.

Abstract

Wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES) is utilized to analyze the experimental aircraft X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) developed by Lockheed Martin at Skunk Works for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator project. The simulations utilize the charLES solver and aim to assess the ability of WMLES to predict near-field noise levels under cruise conditions, considering various subgrid-scale (SGS) models and grid resolutions. The results are compared with previous numerical studies based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. Our findings demonstrate that WMLES produces near-field pressure predictions that are similar to those of RANS simulations at a comparable computational cost. Some mild discrepancies are observed between the WMLES and RANS predictions downstream the aircraft. These differences persist for finest grid refinement considered, suggesting that they might be attributed to underresolved interactions of shock waves and expansions waves at the trailing edge.