Numerical study of natural laminar flow based on CRM NLF test

Abstract The laminar flow design is increasingly important to recent aircraft development. This research aims to study the natural laminar flow phenomenon using computational flow dynamics (CFD) methods for wing-body geometry. We introduce a workflow with mesh generation and solver choices to simulate the natural laminar flow. The transition prediction results are validated by the results of the Common Research Model Natural Laminar Flow (CRM NLF) wind tunnel test. Based on the wind tunnel experiments for the laminar CRM model, we show that the numerical calculation can reveal the laminar flow mechanism. Most saliently, the laminar simulation results fit quantitatively to CRM NLF data regarding transition front and pressure distribution. The study would pave the way for future aircraft design to enhance the reliability of laminar flow performance evaluations.