A Near-Field CFD Method for Wave Drag Decomposition

Partial-Pressure Fields have shown the capabilities to decompose drag into relevant sources. In transonic flow, they may be used in combination with classical far-field integrals to derive wave drag. The original method presented (Hart, P. L., and Schmitz, S., “Drag Decomposition using Partial-Pressure Fields: ONERA M6 Wing,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 60, No. 5, 2022 pp. 2941–2951) is reliant on both an accurate near-field and far-field grids, making it less advantageous than classical far-field wave drag integrals. In the present work, a new method was developed to predict wave drag solely using a near-field analysis. The method utilizes both partial-pressure fields and lifting-line theory. The theory behind this method is demonstrated, and applied to a total of four cases on the ONERA M6 wing, including three transonic cases, one of which is a special zero lift case, and a subsonic compressible case. A comparison of resulting wave drag results is conducted between the new method, classical far-field decompositions, and the original hybrid partial-pressure field method.