Case Study: German Aerospace Center achieves a 4% lift-to-drag improvement with Tecplot 360

Tail Strake Position Optimization for Generic Transport Aircraft

German Aerospace Center (DLR) worked with Tecplot, Inc. to help optimize the tail strake position on a generic transport aircraft. The challenge was to control strong vortices created by the fuselage upsweep and cargo ramp, which caused flow separation, reduced pressure recovery, and increased drag.

Tecplot, Inc. provided Tecplot 360 as the visualization tool in the design optimization loop, helping the team interpret results from CAD, meshing, solving, and optimization. This enabled DLR to identify the best tail strake location and orientation, achieving a 4% improvement in lift-to-drag ratio and a 28% difference between the worst and best configurations, showing the value of precise placement.

German Aerospace Center