Newbie questions

Anders Olofsson

Hello all!

I'm a complete newbie at CFD. I'm interested in CFD in the field of aerodynamics. What I'd like to do is to calculate lift and drag for an arbitrary shaped body. (Generally it will look like an aircraft!)

So how to do this?

The body will be modelled up of polygons. Known facts are the velocity vector for the whole body, normal vectors and the area of each polygon.

I thought something like this: Calculate lift/drag for each polygon. Sum lift and drag from each polygon and use that for lift/drag for the whole body. Compare lift/drag infront and back of center of gravity to determine rotation stuff for the body.

So the important thing is how to calculate lift/drag for one polygon?. I can see that surrounding polygons affect the calculations somehow.

Some booktips on books that really teach the basics of CFD and aerodynamics would be great.