Experiment and CFD of a High-Lift Configuration Civil Transport Aircraft Model

TLDR

Validation data for a complex aircraft configuration were essential to advance high‑accuracy CFD technology. The study aims to develop a high‑lift design methodology and to collect aerodynamic data for CFD validation and flow‑physics understanding. A newly designed civil transport aircraft model with high‑lift devices was tested in a low‑speed wind tunnel while performing simultaneous Navier‑Stokes CFD on an unstructured hybrid mesh. Wind‑tunnel tests revealed Reynolds‑number effects in both linear and stall regions, and while CFD captured overall aerodynamics, discrepancies with experimental data were observed.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the first wind tunnel testing for a high-lift configuration aircraft model in JAXA. Main objective of the research is to develop the design methodology for a high-lift system. During the research process, validation data for a complex configuration assuming actual aircraft was essential for an advancement of CFD technology with high accuracy and reliability. As the step of our research, a civil transport aircraft model equipped with high-lift devices, fuselage, nacelle-pylon, slat tracks and Flap Track Fairings (FTF) was newly designed and produced, then lowspeed wind tunnel test was conducted. The first testing was aiming to store large amount of basic aerodynamic information by various measurement techniques to provide the experimental data for CFD validation and to understand flow physics. Navier-Stokes computation was performed on unstructured hybrid mesh, simultaneously. As a result of the testing, two kinds of Reynolds number effects within linear region and also at stall region were observed. Analysis of static pressure distribution and flow visualization gave the knowledge to understand the aerodynamic performance. CFD could capture the whole characteristics in basic aerodynamics even for such a complicated model geometry and its flow field, while differences between the experimental results and CFD were shown.