Project description
Flying regionally and sustainably on agile adaptive wings
Turboprops are the perfect choice for shorter distances and regional coverage. The EU is preparing the next generation of regional aircraft with high-tech performance boosters such as active adaptive wings to optimise aerodynamics, lighter durable materials and innovative manufacturing techniques. The EU-funded PERTURB project under Clean Sky 2 is doing its part with computational fluid dynamics simulations in concert with wind-tunnel testing in a pressurised facility allowing variation of the atmospheric conditions. The turboprop model is furnished with new control surface concepts. These efforts aim to evaluate the wings' response during particularly turbulent air flow conditions, as a building block for the flight test preparations.
Objective
A CFD characterisation of a regional turboprop configuration with particular focus on the Reynolds number dependence of the power effects, both direct (1P forces and moments) and indirect (slipstream) is performed, in concert with a wind-tunnel test in a pressurised facility to allow variation in Reynolds number. The turboprop is furnished with new control surface concepts. Variable Fidelity Modelling (VFM) techniques are used for the CFD characterisation, deploying steady RANS with actuator disk modelling as the low-fidelity approach and unsteady RANS with full propeller blade modelling as the high-fidelity approach. The latter uses a novel coupling between the RANS solver and a Vortex Particle Method to increase the accuracy of slipstream effects without resorting to costly mesh refinement in the propeller wake. A methodology for determining reliable performance data at full scale is developed, using a combination of CFD and wind-tunnel data at atmospheric conditions only, again deploying VFM.
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
MK41 7PF Bedford
United Kingdom