Numerical Aerodynamics at DLR

Some years ago the national CFD project MEGAFLOW was initiated in Germany to combine many of the CFD development activities from DLR, universities and aircraft industry. Its goal was the development and validation of a dependable and efficient numerical tool for the aerodynamic simulation of complete aircraft which met the requirements of industrial implementations. The MEGAFLOW software system includes the block-structured Navier-Stokes code FLOWer and the unstructured Navier-Stokes code TAU. Both codes have reached a high level of maturity and they are intensively used by DLR and the German aerospace industry in the design process of new aircraft. Recently, the follow-on project MEGADESIGN and MEGAOPT were set up which focus on the development and enhancement of efficient numerical methods for shape design and optimization. This article highlights recent improvements of the software and its capability to predict viscous flows for complex industrial aircraft applications.