Use of a wake-integral method for computational drag analysis

The capacity to predict drag due to lift using numerical simulations and a wake integral method is studied. Results show an interesting aspect about the presence of low level spurious vorticity in the flow. Using a wake-based approach to compute for the drag and lift, it was found that to correctly predict these components it is necessary to very accurately resolve the flowfield in the region. Also critical is an accurate resolution of the vortical field when using the present approach for induced drag calculations. A sufficiently dense mesh is then required in the wake region to maintain the performance of this approach.