COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS CFD ANALYSIS OF HIGH MASS FLOW PROPELLER-AUGMENTOR. DISTRIBUTED ELECTRIC PROPU…

Public award description

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS CFD ANALYSIS OF HIGH MASS FLOW PROPELLER-AUGMENTOR. DISTRIBUTED ELECTRIC PROPULSION (DEP) ENABLES A HIGH DEGREE OF COUPLING BETWEEN THE AERODYNAMICS AND PROPULSION CHARACTERISTICS OF AIRCRAFT WING SYSTEMS. TIGHT COUPLING OF THESE TWO DISCIPLINES OFFER OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE AND ACHIEVE CAPABILITIES THAT CAN T BE ACHIEVED WITH ISOLATED WING AND PROPULSION SOLUTIONS. HIGHER-ORDER ANALYSIS USING COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) TOOLS IS REQUIRED TO CAPTURE THESE HIGHLY COUPLED EFFECTS WITH ANALYSIS TOOLS THAT HAVE BEEN CALIBRATED TO VALIDATION DATASETS FROM PRIOR AERO-PROPULSIVE WIND TUNNEL TESTS. ANALYSIS OF SPECIFIC DEP SYSTEMS IS DESIRED TO IMPROVE THE STATE OF THE ART TO ACHIEVE VERY HIGH LIFT AT LOW SPEEDS, AT EVEN STATIC CONDITIONS WHILE ENTRAINING FLOW TO MAXIMIZE THE WING LIFTING CHARACTERISTICS. AT THE SAME TIME HIGH CRUISE EFFICIENCY IS DESIRED, ALONG WITH EXCELLENT CONTROL CHARACTERISTICS THROUGHOUT THE FLIGHT ENVELOPE. THIS RESEARCH WILL INVESTIGATE SPECIFIC DEP CONFIGURATION TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE AERO-PROPULSIVE CHARACTERISTICS. IN PREVIOUS WORK, A CENTRIFUGAL FAN SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED TO ENABLE A DISTRIBUTED BLOWING SYSTEM OVER SURFACES OF A VERTICAL TAKEOFF AND LANDING (VTOL) CONCEPTUAL AIRCRAFT WITH AN ULTRA-LOW NOISE SIGNATURE. THE CENTRIFUGAL FAN SYSTEM HAS UNDERGONE NUMEROUS DESIGN ITERATIONS TO MEET THE STRINGENT REQUIREMENTS FOR EFFICIENCY AND PRESSURE HEAD OPERATING AT A HIGH ROTATIONAL SPEED. CFD ANALYSIS AND PROTOTYPE TESTING WERE PERFORMED TO VERIFY THE PERFORMANCE PREDICTED BY DESIGN TOOLS WERE IN ACCEPTABLE UNCERTAINTY BOUNDS. FURTHERMORE, THE DESIGN WAS ITERATED TO ALSO ENSURE THAT THE SIZE OF THE FAN WAS CONSTRAINED TO FIT WITHIN AIRCRAFT SIZING CONSTRAINTS. ADDITIONAL BLOWING SURFACE GEOMETRIES WERE CREATED. THESE GEOMETRIES REQUIRE CFD ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE SUITABILITY FOR USE ON ELECTRIC VTOL AIRCRAFT.