Aerodynamic Installation Effects of an Over-the-Wing Propeller on a High-Lift Configuration

Preliminary design studies indicate that a cruise-efficient short takeoff and landing aircraft has enhanced takeoff performance at competitive direct operating costs when using high-speed propellers in combination with internally blown flaps. The original tractor configuration is compared to an over-the-wing propeller, which allows for noise shielding. An additional geometry with partially embedded rotor similar to a channel wing is considered to increase the beneficial interaction. This paper shows the aerodynamic integration effects with a focus on climb performance and provides an assessment of the three aforementioned configurations for a simplified wing segment at takeoff conditions. Steady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations have been conducted using an actuator disk model and were evaluated based on the overall design. Interacting with the blown flap, the conventional tractor propeller induces large lift and drag increments due to the vectored sliptream. Although this effect is much smaller for an over-the-wing configuration, by halving the lift augmentation, the lift-to-drag ratio and the propulsive efficiency are considerably improved. Besides a moderate lift gain, the main advantage of a channel wing design is the location of the thrust vector close to the center of gravity resulting in a smaller nosedown pitching moment due to thrust. A disadvantage of over-the-wing propellers is the inhomogeneous inflow at higher velocity, which leads to oscillating blade loads and reduced efficiency.