Numerical comparisons of panel methods at subsonic and supersonic speeds

Abstract

Numerical comparisons between some recently developed surface panel methods and well-established methods are made to assess their accuracy at subsonic and supersonic speeds. The results at subsonic speeds indicate similar improvements for the methods investigated over the low order source method. At supersonic speeds, stable and accurate results were obtained with the surface panel methods. Significant differences between tangential mass flux and tangential velocity boundary conditions occurred, especially at low fineness ratios and higher Mach numbers. The advantages of the general source/doublet panel formulation at both subsonic and supersonic speeds are noted.