Wind tunnel testing remains an important reference method for store separation verification, but its high cost and long scheduling lead time make it impractical for every design iteration. Where does numerical simulation fit in?
A physical wind tunnel test involves facility booking, scaled model manufacturing, instrumentation setup, and scheduling. Each of these steps can take weeks to months, and the cost stays high regardless of how many configurations are examined.
Running a 6-DOF simulation with CFTools requires no facility booking — you can re-evaluate the effect of a design change within hours, enabling fast iteration during early design.
A physical test budget usually allows only a limited number of configurations, while Monte Carlo risk analysis can automatically sweep through thousands of runs — increasing the odds of catching critical borderline scenarios.
Numerical simulation doesn't replace wind tunnel testing in every case: it's a powerful tool for early design screening, eliminating risky configurations, and pre-certification preparation, but final certification often still requires physical or flight test as a reference. CFTools' approach positions the two as complementary, not as substitutes for one another.
Before committing to an expensive test slot, CFTools lets you sweep a wide scenario space to identify critical/borderline configurations in advance, focusing physical testing on those configurations for a more efficient test budget. See other use cases.