hi does anyone know of any good references for 3D panel methods over general geometries? or where can i get a public-domain solver?

Hi,

I think the following references will be of use to you.

Hess,J.L. and Smith,A.M.O., Calculation of potential flow around arbitrary bodies, Progress in Aerospace Sciences, Vol. 8, 1967, 1-138.

Woodward, F.A., An improved method for the aerodynamic configurations in subsonic and supersonic flow, NASA CR 2228, 1973.

Katz,J. and Plotkin,A., Low-speed Aerodynamics: from wing theory to panel methods, Mc-Graw Hill, 1991.

Good Luck! Uma

The question is very general. You don't specify what types of problems you'd like to use the method for.

In addition to the references given earlier I'd suggest the following for starters:

1-B. Maskew, "Program VSAERO Theory document, A computer Program for Calculating Nonlinear Aerodynamic Characteristics of Arbitrary Configurations," NASA Contractor Report 4023, 1987

2-L. Morino, "Helmholtz decomposition revisited: Vorticity generation and trailing edge condition," Computational Mechanics, 1., 65-90, 1986

3-J.E. Romate, "Local Error Analysis of Three-Dimensional Panel Methods In Terms of Curvilinear Surface Coordinates," SIAM Journal of Numerical Analysis, 27, No. 2, 529-542, 1990

4-A. Gharakhani, "A 3D Galerkin Boundary Element Method For Potential Flow About Thin Membranes," AIAA-2000-1000, 38th Aerospaces Sciences Meeting & Exhibit, January 2000

The above is a very small list of publications on the subject. Ref. 1 is quite useful in terms of introducing you to the subject in a hands on manner. Ref. 3 is a very good analysis that shows the accuracy limitations of low order panel methods (which most published work is based on). Ref. 4 is a new methodology for obtaining accurate solutions at arbitrarily high orders. At least 2 orders of magnitude savings in the number of panels can be achieved using the new approach as compared to the traditional panel methods - implying significant savings in computing time and memory

Adrin Gharakhani

if you're looking for a solver NASA cosmic has a freeware CD you can buy which has a few panel codes which have been used for design work. it isn't free but it's cheap (<$100us)