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Experimental aerodynamic assessment and evaluation of an agile highly swept aircraft configuration

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Abstract

Extensive experimental and numerical investigations on a highly swept generic unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) configuration of lambda type with a variable leading edge contour have been conducted. Within these investigations, it was shown that the flow field is dominated by complex vortex systems including vortex-to-vortex and vortex-to-boundary layer interactions. The vortex-dominated flow field has a strong nonlinear influence on the aerodynamic behavior of the configuration. Hence, controllability is demanding and poses a real challenge in the design of these kinds of configurations. Especially, the dimensioning of the control surfaces, for the lateral- and longitudinal stability of tailless configurations of low aspect ratio and high leading-edge sweep, poses a challenging task which is not yet solved. To understand the problem of lacking lateral- and longitudinal stability for these kinds of configurations, experiments in the subsonic and transonic flow regime have been conducted for the Stability and Control Configuration (SACCON), which has a leading edge sweep of 53°, to assess the control surface effectiveness of conventional trailing-edge control devices. The present study reviews the experimental investigations conducted with the highly swept generic UCAV configuration SACCON.

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Abbreviations

AVT:

Applied Vehicle Technology

B:

Wing span [m]

CL :

Lift coefficient [–]

CD :

Drag coefficient [–]

CY :

Side force coefficient [–]

Cl :

Rolling moment coefficient [–]

Cm :

Pitching moment coefficient [–]

Cn :

Yawing moment coefficient [–]

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

CS:

Control surface

cref :

Reference chord length [m]

cr :

Root chord [m]

cMRP :

Chord length location of MRP [m]

DNW:

German–Dutch Wind Tunnels

L.E.:

Leading edge

LIB:

Left-hand inboard

LOB:

Left-hand outboard

M:

Mach number [–]

MPM:

Model positioning mechanism

MRP:

Moment reference point

NATO:

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

NWB:

Low-Speed Wind Tunnel Braunschweig

PSP:

Pressure-sensitive paint

RANS:

Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes

Re:

Reynolds number, based on cref [–]

RIB:

Right-hand inboard

ROB:

Right-hand outboard

RTO:

Research and Technology Organization

S:

Wing half-span [m] = 0.5 b

SACCON:

Stability and Control Configuration

STO:

Science and Technology Organization

TWG:

Transonic Wind Tunnel Göttingen

UCAV:

Unmanned combat aerial vehicle

RHS :

Full-span deflection right-hand side

LHS :

Full-span deflection left-hand side

x, y, z:

Coordinate system

α:

Angle of attack [°]

η:

Control surface deflection angle [°]

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DNW, Transonic Wind Tunnel Göttingen (TWG), Bunsenstraße 10, 37073, Göttingen, Germany

    Kerstin C. Huber

  2. DLR, Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, Lilienthalplatz 7, 38108, Braunschweig, Germany

    Andreas Schütte

  3. DLR, Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, Bunsenstraße 10, 37073, Göttingen, Germany

    Martin Rein

  4. DNW, Low-Speed Wind Tunnel Braunschweig (NWB), Lilienthalplatz 7, 38108, Braunschweig, Germany

    Thomas Löser

Authors
  1. Kerstin C. Huber
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  2. Andreas Schütte
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  3. Martin Rein
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  4. Thomas Löser
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kerstin C. Huber.

Additional information

This paper is based on a presentation at the German Aerospace Congress, September 22–24, 2015, Rostock, Germany.

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Huber, K.C., Schütte, A., Rein, M. et al. Experimental aerodynamic assessment and evaluation of an agile highly swept aircraft configuration. CEAS Aeronaut J 8, 17–29 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-016-0219-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-016-0219-y

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