SEARCH · Search NASA
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Near zero lift drag coefficient relationship to initial slope of normal force coefficient curve obtained from Newtonian theory
Five full scale rotorcraft airfoils were tested in the NASA Ames Eleven-Foot Transonic Wind Tunnel for full scale Reynolds numbers at Mach numbers from 0.3 to 1.07. The models, which spanned the tunnel from floor to ceiling, included two modern baseline airfoils, the SC1095 and SC1094 R8, which have been previously tested in other facilities. Three advanced transonic airfoils, designated the SSC-A09, SSC-A07, and SSC-B08, were tested to confirm predicted performance and provide confirmation of advanced airfoil design methods. The test showed that the eleven-foot tunnel is suited to two-dimensional airfoil testing. Maximum lift coefficients, drag coefficients, pitching moments, and pressure coefficient distributions are presented. The airfoil analysis codes agreed well with the data, with the Grumman GRUMFOIL code giving the best overall performance correlation.
The thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations are solved for the flow about a coplanar close-coupled canard-wing-body configuration at a transonic Mach number of 0.90 and at angles of attack ranging from 0 to 12 degrees. The influence of the canard on the wing flowfield, including canard-wing vortex interaction and wing vortex breakdown, is investigated. A study of canard downwash and canard leading-edge vortex effects, which are the primary mechanisms of the canard-wing interaction, is emphasized. Comparisons between the computations and experimental measurements of surface pressure coefficients, lift, drag and pitching moment data are favorable. A grid refinement study for configurations with and without canard shows that accurate results are obtained using a refined grid for angles of attack where vortex burst is present. At an angle of attack of approximately 12 deg, favorable canard-wing interaction which delays wing vortex breakdown is indicated by the computations and is in good agreement with experimental findings.
The high-lift performance of a multi-element airfoil was optimized by using neural-net predictions that were trained using a computational data set. The numerical data was generated using a two-dimensional, incompressible, Navier-Stokes algorithm with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. Because it is difficult to predict maximum lift for high-lift systems, an empirically-based maximum lift criteria was used in this study to determine both the maximum lift and the angle at which it occurs. The 'pressure difference rule,' which states that the maximum lift condition corresponds to a certain pressure difference between the peak suction pressure and the pressure at the trailing edge of the element, was applied and verified with experimental observations for this configuration. Multiple input, single output networks were trained using the NASA Ames variation of the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for each of the aerodynamic coefficients (lift, drag and moment). The artificial neural networks were integrated with a gradient-based optimizer. Using independent numerical simulations and experimental data for this high-lift configuration, it was shown that this design process successfully optimized flap deflection, gap, overlap, and angle of attack to maximize lift. Once the neural nets were trained and integrated with the optimizer, minimal additional computer resources were required to perform optimization runs with different initial conditions and parameters. Applying the neural networks within the high-lift rigging optimization process reduced the amount of computational time and resources by 44% compared with traditional gradient-based optimization procedures for multiple optimization runs.
An investigation to evaluate the effects of thickened and blunted leading-edge modifications on the wave drag of a swept wing has been made at Mach numbers from 0.65 to 2.20 and at a Reynolds number of 2,580,000 based on the mean aerodynamic chord of the basic wing. Two leading-edge designs were investigated and they are referred to as the thickened and the blunted modifications although both sections had equally large leading-edge radii. The thickened leading edge was formed by increasing the thickness over the forward 40 percent of the basic wing section. The blunted modification was formed by reducing the wing chords about 1 percent and by increasing the section thickness slightly over the forward 6 percent of the basic section in a manner to keep the wing sweep and volume essentially equal to the respective values for the basic wing. The basic wing had an aspect ratio of 3, a leading-edge sweep of 45 deg., a taper ratio of 0.4, and NACA 64AO06 sections perpendicular to a line swept back 39.45 deg., the quarter-chord line of these sections. Test results indicated that the thickened modification resulted in an increase in zero-lift drag coefficient of from 0.0040 to 0.0060 over values for the basic model at Mach numbers at which the wing leading edge was sonic or supersonic. Although drag coefficients of both the basic and thickened models were reduced at all test Mach numbers by body indentations designed for the range of Mach numbers from 1.00 to 2.00, the greater drag of the thickened model relative to that of the basic model was not reduced. The blunted model, however, had less than one quarter of the drag penalty of the thickened model relative to the basic model at supersonic leading-edge conditions (M greater or equal to root-2).
The high-lift performance of a multi-element airfoil was optimized by using neural-net predictions that were trained using a computational data set. The numerical data was generated using a two-dimensional, incompressible, Navier-Stokes algorithm with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. Because it is difficult to predict maximum lift for high-lift systems, an empirically-based maximum lift criteria was used in this study to determine both the maximum lift and the angle at which it occurs. Multiple input, single output networks were trained using the NASA Ames variation of the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm for each of the aerodynamic coefficients (lift, drag, and moment). The artificial neural networks were integrated with a gradient-based optimizer. Using independent numerical simulations and experimental data for this high-lift configuration, it was shown that this design process successfully optimized flap deflection, gap, overlap, and angle of attack to maximize lift. Once the neural networks were trained and integrated with the optimizer, minimal additional computer resources were required to perform optimization runs with different initial conditions and parameters. Applying the neural networks within the high-lift rigging optimization process reduced the amount of computational time and resources by 83% compared with traditional gradient-based optimization procedures for multiple optimization runs.
Boundary Layer separation causes the airfoil to stall and therefore imposes dramatic performance degradation on the airfoil. In recent years, flow separation control has been one of the active research areas in the field of aerodynamics due to its promising performance improvements on the lifting device. These active flow separation control techniques include steady and unsteady air injection as well as suction on the airfoil surface etc. This paper will be focusing on the steady and unsteady air injection on the airfoil. Although wind tunnel experiments revealed that the performance improvements on the airfoil using injection techniques, the details of how the key variables such as air injection slot geometry and air injection angle etc impact the effectiveness of flow separation control via air injection has not been studied. A parametric study of both steady and unsteady air injection active flow control will be the main objective for this summer. For steady injection, the key variables include the slot geometry, orientation, spacing, air injection velocity as well as the injection angle. For unsteady injection, the injection frequency will also be investigated. Key metrics such as lift coefficient, drag coefficient, total pressure loss and total injection mass will be used to measure the effectiveness of the control technique. A design of experiments using the Box-Behnken Design is set up in order to determine how each of the variables affects each of the key metrics. Design of experiment is used so that the number of experimental runs will be at minimum and still be able to predict which variables are the key contributors to the responses. The experiments will then be conducted in the 1ft by 1ft wind tunnel according to the design of experiment settings. The data obtained from the experiments will be imported into JMP, statistical software, to generate sets of response surface equations which represent the statistical empirical model for each of the metrics as a function of the key variables. Next, the variables such as the slot geometry can be optimized using the build-in optimizer within JMP. Finally, a wind tunnel testing will be conducted using the optimized slot geometry and other key variables to verify the empirical statistical model. The long term goal for this effort is to assess the impacts of active flow control using air injection at system level as one of the task plan included in the NASAs URETI program with Georgia Institute of Technology.
The growing need to develop and deploy small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs) for various applications in the airspace necessitates reliable tools to accurately predict the flight trajectories of the sUAVs. The knowledge of the predicted trajectories help decision makers anticipate potential conflict, assess the risk, and take appropriate risk mitigation actions. In addition, uncertainties in vehicle models, weather, and controller action further highlights the need for reliable prediction tools. In this project, the application of mixed sparse grid-based quadrature and generalized polynomial chaos(gPC) expansion method for uncertainty quantification and collision assessment in air traffic consisting of fixed-wing small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAV) was studied. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that this provides a reliable framework to carry out quantitative conflict assessment in an unmanned air traffic, which when employed, can improve the functionalities of the unmanned traffic management system. It was observed that the results from the gPC expansion framework developed in the project can be utilized to conduct rapid probabilistic collision assessment for near real-time unmanned traffic management in the airspace. From the vehicle models, position updates, and wind-field data, a priori gPC based 3-σcon-fidence ellipses can provide estimates of potential conflict at some future instants. The computational costs scaled linearly when the uncertain inputs were fewer. Further, the largest allowable distribution of para-metric uncertainties that leads to the smallest risk of collision in traffic of small unmanned aerial vehicles could be calculated. The time of closest approach between two sUAVs can be established paving way for development of proactive mitigation strategies. The separation between the sUAVs was found to be most significantly affected by uncertainties in the maximum available thrusts, zero-lift drag coefficients, and wing planform areas of the sUAVs. The study of uncertain wind-fields indicated that a heterogeneous traffic mix resulted in an increased probability of conflict. Increased measurement update rate reduced the uncertain-ties in the trajectories of the vehicles, further reducing the probability of conflict but rapid updates of all vehicles in the airspace poses a stringent communication limitation. The gPC framework also provided the means to analyze vehicle impact (crash region) due to loss of control resulting from actuator failure in sUAS traffic, essentially to predict impact and crash zones for representative vehicles. The predicted regions when compared with non-participant density, provides a means to develop an early mitigation strategy, should the sUAV detect an imminent actuator failure.
An investigation has been made to determine the aerodynamic characteristics of four elliptic cones having plan-form semiapex angles ranging from about 9 to 31 deg., and also for one of these cones modified on the upper surface to reduce the base area by about one half. The tests were made for angles of attack from about -2 to +21 deg., at Mach numbers from 0.60 to 1.40, and for a constant Reynolds number of 1.4 million, based on the length of the models. For each model, lift, pitching-moment, and drag coefficients, and lift-drag ratios are presented for the forebody, and axial-force coefficients are presented for the base. Calculated lift and pitching- moment curves for the elliptic cones, and lift-curve slopes for each model at supersonic Mach numbers are shown for comparison with the corresponding experimental values. Lift-drag ratios are also given for the forebody and base combined. These data are presented without discussion.
The drag reduction potentially available from the use of winglets at the tips of low aspect ratio (1.75-2.67) wings with pronounced (45-60 deg) leading edge sweep is assessed numerically for the case of a cruise design point at Mach of 0.8 and a lift coefficient of 0.3. Both wing-winglet and wing-alone design geometries are derived from a linear-theory, minimum induced drag design methodology. Relative performance is evaluated with a nonlinear extended small disturbance potential flow analysis code. Predicted lift coefficient/pressure drag coefficient increases at equal lift for the wing-winglet configurations over the wing-alone planform are of the order of 14.6-15.8, when boundary layer interaction is included.
A representative supersonic transport design was tested in the National Transonic Facility (NTF) in its original configuration with small-radius leading-edge flaps and also with modified large-radius inboard leading-edge flaps. Aerodynamic data were obtained over a range of Reynolds numbers at a Mach number of 0.3 and angles of attack up to 16 deg. Increasing the radius of the inboard leading-edge flap delayed nose-up pitching moment to a higher lift coefficient. Deflecting the large-radius leading-edge flap produced an overall decrease in lift coefficient and delayed nose-up pitching moment to even higher angles of attack as compared with the undeflected large- radius leading-edge flap. At angles of attack corresponding to the maximum untrimmed lift-to-drag ratio, lift and drag coefficients decreased while lift-to-drag ratio increased with increasing Reynolds number. At an angle of attack of 13.5 deg., the pitching-moment coefficient was nearly constant with increasing Reynolds number for both the small-radius leading-edge flap and the deflected large-radius leading-edge flap. However, the pitching moment coefficient increased with increasing Reynolds number for the undeflected large-radius leading-edge flap above a chord Reynolds number of about 35 x 10 (exp 6).
This paper investigates the effect of nonlinear large deflection bending on the aerodynamic performance of a high aspect ratio flexible wing. A set of nonlinear static aeroelastic equations are derived for the large bending deflection of a high aspect ratio wing structure. An analysis is conducted to compare the nonlinear bending theory with the linear bending theory. The results show that the nonlinear bending theory is length-preserving whereas the linear bending theory causes a non-physical effect of lengthening the wing structure under the no axial load condition. A modified lifting line theory is developed to compute the lift and drag coefficients of a wing structure undergoing a large bending deflection. The lift and drag coefficients are more accurately estimated by the nonlinear bending theory due to its length-preserving property. The nonlinear bending theory yields lower lift and span efficiency than the linear bending theory. A coupled aerodynamic-nonlinear finite element model is developed to implement the nonlinear bending theory for a Common Research Model (CRM) flexible wing wind tunnel model to be tested in the University of Washington Aeronautical Laboratory (UWAL). The structural stiffness of the model is designed to give about 10% wing tip deflection which is large enough that could cause the nonlinear deflection effect to become significant. The computational results show that the nonlinear bending theory yields slightly less lift than the linear bending theory for this wind tunnel model. As a result, the linear bending theory is deemed adequate for the CRM wind tunnel model.
A first-order theory of the fluctuating lift and drag coefficients associated with the aerodynamically induced motions of rising and falling spherical wind sensors is developed. The equations of motion of a sensor are perturbed about an equilibrium state in which the buoyancy force balances the mean vertical drag force. It is shown that, to within first order in perturbation quantities, the aerodynamic lift force is confined to the horizontal, and the fluctuating drag force associated with fluctuations in the drag coefficient acts along the vertical. The perturbation equations are transformed with Fourier-Stieltjes integrals. The resulting equations lead to relationships between the power spectra of the aerodynamically induced velocity components and the spectra of the fluctuating lift and drag coefficients.
Closed-form equations for the lift, drag, and pitching moment coefficients of two dimensional airfoil sections in steady subsonic flow were obtained from published theoretical and experimental results. A turbulent boundary layer was assumed to exist on the airfoil surfaces. The effects of section angle of attack, Mach number, Reynolds number, and the specific airfoil type were considered. The equations were applicable through an angle of attack range of -180 deg to +180 deg; however, above about + or - 20 deg, the section characteristics were assumed to be functions only of angle of attack. A computer program is presented which evaluates the equations for a range of Mach numbers and angles of attack. Calculated results for the NACA 23012 airfoil section were compared with experimental data.
An investigation was conducted in the Langley 16-Foot Transonic Tunnel to determine installation effects on single-engine convergent-divergent nozzles applicable to reduced-power supersonic cruise aircraft. Tests were conducted at Mach numbers from 0.50 to 1.20, at angles of attack from -3 degrees to 9 degrees, and at nozzle pressure ratios from 1.0 (jet off) to 8.0. The effects of empennage arrangement, nozzle length, a cusp fairing, and afterbody closure on total aft-end drag coefficient and component drag coefficients were investigated. Basic lift- and drag-coefficient data and external static-pressure distributions on the nozzle and afterbody are presented and discussed.
This report presents the results of flight test of the Pitcairn "PCA-2" autogiro. Lift and drag coefficients with the propeller stopped have been determined over approximately a 90 degree range of angles of attack. Based on the sum of fixed-wing and swept-disk areas, the maximum lift coefficient is 0.895, the minimum drag coefficient with propeller stopped is 0.015, and the maximum l/d with propeller stopped is 4.8. Lift coefficients were found also with the propeller delivering positive thrust and did not differ consistently from those found with propeller stopped. Curves of gliding performance included in this report show a minimum vertical velocity of 15 feet per second at an air speed of 36 miles per hour and a flight-path angle of -17 degrees. In vertical descent the vertical velocity is 35 feet per second.
The lift coefficient of!a wing of small span at first shows a linear increase for the increasing angle of attack, but to a lesser degree then was to be expected according to the theory of the lifting line; thereafter the lift coefficient increases more rapidly than linearity, as contrasted with the the theory of the lifting line. The induced drag coefficient for a given lift coefficient, on the other hand, is obviously much smaller than it would be according to the theory. A mall change in the theory of the lifting line will cover these deviations.
The flow solvers XFOIL and UNS2D were utilized within the airfoil table generator AFTGen to generate airfoil performance tables, and these results were compared to determine accuracy at low Mach numbers that may be relevant to Urban Air Mobiltiy (UAM) applications. Airfoil tables were generated for the NACA 0012 airfoil as well as a set of three asymmetrical airfoils developed in this study from which the rotor blade CSUS 001 was comprised. To determine which solver more accurately represented real-world aerodynamics, the airfoils were experimentally tested in the CSU 2-foot by 2-foot wind tunnel. The results of XFOIL and UNS2D were compared to the experimental results. It is important to note that due to differences in the Reynolds numbers between simulations and experimental testing, the magnitude of the section lift and drag coefficient varies between the two methods. However, observations on the accuracy of XFOIL and UNS2D could still be made based on the trends of the data. For the symmetrical NACA 0012 airfoil, it was found that XFOIL and UNS2D accurately predicted the trends of the section lift and drag coefficients. However, XFOIL predicted slightly lower section drag coefficients than UNS2D for the tested angles of attack. For the asymmetrical CSUS 001 airfoils, XFOIL could not predict a steady to decreasing section lift coefficient phenomenon at negative angles of attack observed in both the UNS2D and experimental results. Similarly, XFOIL was unable to predict an increased section drag coefficient at negative angles of attack for the CSUS 001 airfoils as observed in the UNS2D and experimental results. Additionally, 3D computational fluid dynamics was utilized through RotCFD to compare the performance of a rotor blade using the CSUS 001 airfoils versus a rotor blade using the NACA 0012 airfoil.