THE ABILITY TO OPTIMIZE THE DESIGN OF V/STOL AIRCRAFT AND TOPREDICT THEIR PERFORMANCE REQUIRES A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF THE COMPLEX JET-INDUCED PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH THESE AIRCRAFT.

THE ABILITY TO OPTIMIZE THE DESIGN OF V/STOL AIRCRAFT AND TOPREDICT THEIR PERFORMANCE REQUIRES A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF THE COMPLEX JET-INDUCED PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH THESE AIRCRAFT. PRESENTLY, EXPERIMENTAL WORK IS THE MAIN AVENUE FOLLOWED TO GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF V/STOL FLOWS. NUMERICAL SIMULATION HAS MANY ADVANTAGES NOT SHARED BY EXPERIMENTAL TOOLS. IT THEREFORE CAN COMPLEMENT EXPERIMENTAL EFFORTS IN GAINING A DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF THE COMPLEX FLOW PHENOMENA ASSOCIATED WITH V/STOL FLOWS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED WORK IS TO FORMULATE A PROCEDURE FOR THE ACCURATE PREDICTION OF V/STOL FLOWS AND TO DEVELOP ACODE THAT ALLOWS THE SIMULATION OF THESE FLOWS. IN PHASE I,A PROCEDURE APPLICABLE TO THREE-DIMENSIONAL JET FLOW PROBLEMS WILL BE DEVELOPED. THIS PROCEDURE WILL BE TESTED BY APPLYING IT TO A TWO-DIMENSIONAL PROBLEM. A CODE WILL BEDEVELOPED TO CALCULATE THE FLOW FIELD OF A PLANAR IMPINGING JET. THE IDEAS FORMULATED AND TESTED IN PHASE I WILL BE A BASIS FOR THE PHASE II EFFORT TOWARD DEVELOPING A PILOT CODETHAT WILL ALLOW THE INVESTIGATION OF SINGLE OR MULTIPLE JET IMPINGEMENT ON THE GROUND. PHASE II WILL ENCOMPASS BOTH NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS WITH THE AIM OF RESOLVING SOME OF THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH V/STOL FLOW FIELDS.