NASA benchmark vs Vento CFD

What we would like to show you in this post is a renowned NASA benchmark on the prediction of the wind loads on 3-element airplane wing in take-off / landing configuration.

The confidence the aeronautical engineers have on the CFD is based on these results.

When talking to structural civil engineers who never used the CFD, sooner or later during the conversation the usual question comes up: "how can I trust the CFD wind load predictions ?”

This is a reasonable question. It makes sense. Civil structural engineers have in fact relied for years on the wind load predictions coming from the application of Regulations (Codes). They have difficulty accepting CFD-calculated wind loads which are often lower than the corresponding Code-based wind loads.