Validation of a new unstructured full potential formulation

A new computer program, called FPS-SD, for analyzing complete aircraft configurations at subsonic, transonic and supersonic Mach numbers has been developed. This program provides the ability to accurately and efficiently predict non-linear transonic flow-fields with the use of automatically created and adapted unstructured tetrahedral grids. The numerical methods implemented in FPS-3D are described in this report. The method solves the conservative Full Potential equation. An unstructured tetrahedral based discretization is used to simplify the grid generation process. The geometric flexibility of triangles in defining the surface geometry and of tetrahedra to discretize the flowfield permits the use of an essentially automatic grid generation process. A second order, upwind limited Finite Element discretization of the Full Potential equation is solved using a preconditioned conjugate gradient squared like algorithm embedded in an inexact Newton method. Solutions are obtained on a sequence of automatically adapted grids based on estimated solution errors. Solutions obtained on both workstation and super-computer class machines are presented for the ONERA M6 wing.