NASA ERA Integrated CFD for Wind Tunnel Testing of Hybrid Wing-Body Configuration

The NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project explored enabling technologies to reduce impact of aviation on the environment. One project research challenge area was the study of advanced airframe and engine integration concepts to reduce community noise and fuel burn. To address this...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI). Conference Proceedings
Main Authors Garcia, Joseph A, Melton, John E, Stremel, Paul M, Nikaido, Ben E, Childs, Robert E, Schuh, Michael, James, Kevin D, Long, Kurtis R, Vicroy, Dan D, Deere, Karen A, Luckring, James M, Carter, Melissa B, Flamm, Jeffrey D
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Hampton NASA/Langley Research Center 04.01.2016
Subjects
Aeroacoustics
Aerodynamics
Aerospace industry
Aircraft industry
Airframes
Aviation
Body-wing configurations
Computational fluid dynamics
Computer simulation
Ejection
Flight tests
Hardware
Impact strength
Interference
Low speed wind tunnels
Mathematical models
Noise reduction
Placement
R&D
Research & development
Stellar winds
Wind tunnel testing
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Summary:The NASA Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) Project explored enabling technologies to reduce impact of aviation on the environment. One project research challenge area was the study of advanced airframe and engine integration concepts to reduce community noise and fuel burn. To address this challenge, complex wind tunnel experiments at both the NASA Langley Research Center's (LaRC) 14'x22' and the Ames Research Center's 40'x80' low-speed wind tunnel facilities were conducted on a BOEING Hybrid Wing Body (HWB) configuration. These wind tunnel tests entailed various entries to evaluate the propulsion-airframe interference effects, including aerodynamic performance and aeroacoustics. In order to assist these tests in producing high quality data with minimal hardware interference, extensive Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations were performed for everything from sting design and placement for both the wing body and powered ejector nacelle systems to the placement of aeroacoustic arrays to minimize its impact on vehicle aerodynamics. This paper presents a high-level summary of the CFD simulations that NASA performed in support of the model integration hardware design as well as the development of some CFD simulation guidelines based on post-test aerodynamic data. In addition, the paper includes details on how multiple CFD codes (OVERFLOW, STAR-CCM+, USM3D, and FUN3D) were efficiently used to provide timely insight into the wind tunnel experimental setup and execution.