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At least 199 records · Page 11

Vortical flow management for improved configuration aerodynamics: Recent experiences

Recent progress in vortex-control applications for alleviating the adverse consequences of three dimensional separation and vortical interactions on slender body/swept wing configurations is reported. Examples include helical separation trip to alleviate the side force due to forebody vortex asymmetry; hinged strakes to avoid vortex breakdown effects; compartmentation of swept leading edge separation to delay the pitch-up instability; under wing vortex trip and vortex trip and vortex flaps for drag reduction at high lift; and an apex-flap trimmer to fully utilize the lift capability of trailing-edge flaps for take off and landing of delta wings. Experimental results on generic wind-tunnel models are presented to illustrate the vortex-management concepts involved and to indicate their potential for enhancing the subsonic aerodynamics of supersonic-cruise type vehicles.

Rao, D. M.↗

Bifurcation theory applied to aircraft motions

Bifurcation theory is used to analyze the nonlinear dynamic stability characteristics of single-degree-of-freedom motions of an aircraft or a flap about a trim position. The bifurcation theory analysis reveals that when the bifurcation parameter, e.g., the angle of attack, is increased beyond a critical value at which the aerodynamic damping vanishes, a new solution representing finite-amplitude periodic motion bifurcates from the previously stable steady motion. The sign of a simple criterion, cast in terms of aerodynamic properties, determines whether the bifurcating solution is stable (supercritical) or unstable (subcritical). For the pitching motion of a flap-plate airfoil flying at supersonic/hypersonic speed, and for oscillation of a flap at transonic speed, the bifurcation is subcritical, implying either that exchanges of stability between steady and periodic motion are accompanied by hysteresis phenomena, or that potentially large aperiodic departures from steady motion may develop. On the other hand, for the rolling oscillation of a slender delta wing in subsonic flight (wing rock), the bifurcation is found to be supercritical. This and the predicted amplitude of the bifurcation periodic motion are in good agreement with experiments.

Hui, W. H.↗

Bifurcation theory applied to aircraft motions

The bifurcation theory is used to analyze the nonlinear dynamic stability characteristics of single-degree-of-freedom motions of an aircraft or a flap about a trim position. The bifurcation theory analysis reveals that when the bifurcation parameter, e.g., the angle of attack, is increased beyond a critical value at which the aerodynamic damping vanishes, a new solution representing finite-amplitude periodic motion bifurcates from the previously stable steady motion. The sign of a simple criterion, cast in terms of aerodynamic properties, determines whether the bifurcating solution is stable (supercritical) or unstable (critical). For the pitching motion of a flap-plate airfoil flying at supersonic/hypersonic speed, and for oscillation of a flap at transonic speed, the bifurcation is subcritical, implying either that exchanges of stability between steady and periodic motion are accompanied by hysteresis phenomena, or that potentially large aperiodic departures from steady motion may develop. On the other hand, for the rolling oscillation of a slender delta wing in subsonic flight (wing rock), the bifurcation is found to be supercritical. This and the predicted amplitude of the bifurcation periodic motion are in good agreement with the experiments.

Hui, W. H.↗

Transonic Symposium: Theory, Application and Experiment, volume 2

Papers presented at the Transonic Symposium are compiled. The following subject areas are covered: National Transonic Facility status; transonic aerodynamics of slender wing-body configuration; laminar flow flight experiments; laminar flow wind tunnel experiments; computational support of X-29A flight experiment; transition location on a clean-up glove installed on a F-14 aircraft; and design studies for a laminar glove for the X-29 aircraft.

Foughner, Jerome T., Jr.↗

Wall Interference in a Perforated Wind Tunnel

The theory of cascades, made up of a series of flat plates placed one behind the other, is extended to the case where the impinging stream is not uniform, and the deduced properties of this cascade-flow are then applied to the study of the wall interference between such as cascade-like boundary and a vortex-source type of singularity. It is shown that the induced velocities, produced by the presence of such a wall, are equal to what is obtained by action of a suitably chosen 'reflected' singularity situated on one side of the wall, together with the action of another suitably chosen 'transmitted' singularity placed on the other side. The concepts of a reflection factor and a transmission factor are introduced to characterize various types of tunnel boundary, whether this is composed of solid wall, open and closed sequences, or just a free fluid surface. These ideas are then extended to cover the situation in which a pair of such walls are allowed to coalesce, especially in the event that one of the walls consists of open and closed portions and the other is a fluid surface. This latter particular combination of boundaries is called a perforated wall. Finally, the interference arising from an arbitrary general singularity placed symmetrically in between two such perforated walls is analyzed, and these results are then applied to the determination of the particular kinds of wall geometry that will produce no interference effects in the case of a slender lifting wing and also in the case of a symmetric profile having a finite thickness.

Brescia, Riccardo↗

Similarity for high angle-of-attack subsonic/transonic slender-body aerodynamics

The work of Sychev (1960) is extended to sharp-edged wings and smooth bodies. A simple fit to the correlations based on the Polhamus (1966) suction analogy is shown for several affine families of bodies with elliptical cross sections. The results suggest that simple models for nonlinear subsonic/transonic flows over not-so-slender wings and bodies can be obtained from a combination of well-known linear-theory models for the attached flow and slender-body concepts for the vortical flow.

Hemsch, M. J.↗

The calculation of pressure on slender airplanes in subsonic and supersonic flow

Under the assumption that a wing, body, or wing-body combination is slender or flying at near sonic velocity, expressions are given which permit the calculation of pressure in the immediate vicinity of the configuration. The disturbance field, in both subsonic and supersonic flight, is shown to consist of two-dimensional disturbance fields extending laterally and a longitudinal field that depends on the streamwise growth of cross-sectional area. A discussion is also given of couplings, between lifting and thickness effects, that necessarily arise as a result of the quadratic dependence of pressure on the induced velocity components. (author)

Heaslet, Max A↗

Economy of flight at supersonic speeds

Prandtl's theory is used to determine the airflow over bodies and wings adapted to supersonic flight. By making use of these results, and by incorporating in them an allowance for the probable skin friction, some estimates of expected lift-drag ratios are made for various flight speeds with the best configuration. At each speed a slender body and wings having the best angle of sweepback are considered. For the range of supersonic speeds shown an airplane of normal density and loading would be required to operate at an altitude of the order of 60,000 feet. The limiting value of 1-1/2 times the speed of sound corresponds to a flight speed of 1000 miles per hour. At this speed about 1.5 miles per gallon of fuel are expected. It is interesting to note that this value corresponds to a value of more than 15 miles per gallon when the weight is reduced to correspond to that of an ordinary automobile.

Jones, R. T.↗

The use of subscale models to predict self-induced oscillations of flight vehicles

The suitability of utilizing subscale dynamic wind tunnel experiments to predict wing rock for slender aircraft is presented. As observed in experiments, both flight and wind tunnel, there is significant interaction of the forebody and leading-edge extension vortices. It is concluded that subscale models can be employed to predict high angle of attack dynamic behavior such as wing rock provided proper precautions are taken.

Nelson, R. C.↗

Approximate Solutions for the Flow About Flat-Top Wing-Body Configurations at High Supersonic Airspeeds

The flow about slender flat-top wing-body configurations traveling at high supersonic speeds and small angles of attack is investigated analytically. In the case of conical configurations, approximate algebraic solutions to the flow field are obtained. In the case of configurations which are conical at the vertex but curved in the stream direction, these solutions are combined with a slender-body approximation to the generalized shock-expansion method to obtain the flow downstream of the vertex. Surface pressures were obtained experimentally at Mach numbers from 3.0 to 6.0 and angles of attack up to 6 deg for several flat-top wing-body configurations. These configurations consisted of half-bodies of revolution mounted beneath thin highly swept wings. Three different bodies were employed. The two conical bodies consisted of one-half of a fineness-ratio-5 cone and one-half of a fineness-ratio-2-1/2 cone. The body of the third configuration consisted of one-half of a fineness-ratio-5 ogive. For the ogive configuration, the leading edges of the wing were curved and designed to just maintain the theoretically determined bow shock along the leading edge at a Mach number of 5.0 and an angle of attack of 3 deg. The predictions of the conical flow theory of this paper for the surface pressures are found to be in good agreement with experiment at Mach numbers of 5.0 and 6.0 up to angles of attack of approximately 3 deg. Estimated lift, drag, and pitching-moment coefficients, as well as maximum lift-drag ratio, are also in good agreement with existing experimental data at a Mach number of 5.0 for a conical configuration having an arrow plan-form wing. It is also found that the generalized shock-expansion method yields reasonable good agreement with experiment for the surface pressures on the half-ogive configuration at a Mach number of 5.0 and an angle of attack of 3 deg.

Savin, Raymond C.↗

Some aspects of hybrid-zeppelins

To increase an airship's maneuverability and payload capacity as well as to save bouyant gas it is proposed to outfit it with a slender delta-wing, which carries about one half of the total take-off weight of the vehicle. An optimization calculation based on the data of LZ 129 (the last airship, which saw passenger-service) leads to a Hybrid-Zeppelin with a wing of aspect-ratio 1.5 and 105 m span. The vehicle carries a payload of 40% of it's total take-off weight and consumes 0.8 t fuel per ton payload over a distance of 10000 km.

Mackrodt, P. A.↗

Characteristics of a Configuration with a Large Angle of Sweepback

A brief discussion is given of some recent experimental results obtained on a supersonic transport-type airplane for a large range of Mach numbers. The theoretical arguments which led to the configuration of this airplane were brought out at the NACA Conference on Supersonic Aerodynamics at the Langley Laboratory, June 1940, 1947; hence, it will not be necessary to dwell on them herein. Briefly, our calculations showed that a reasonably good lift-drag ratio and, hence, reasonably good fuel economy, could be maintained up to a Mach number of 1.5. The configuration required would incorporate a long slender body and wings having a large angle of sweepback together with the highest practicable aspect ratio.

Jones, R. T.↗

The numerical study of 3-D flow past control surfaces

The computation of a steady 3D viscous flow past a slender delta wing-body configuration with trailing edge control surfaces is presented. For the numerical simulation, a cell centered finite volume Navier-Stokes zonal method was used and, besides the standard nonplanar zonal interfacing techniques, a new zonal capability, called a 'virtual zone', was implemented. This capability enables the end caps of the wings or flaps to be gridded and interfaced with the rest of the flowfield in a natural and straightforward manner. The computational results for 0-, 10-, and 24-deg angles-of-attack were found to agree with experimental results qualitively and quantitatively.

Chaussee, Denny S.↗