Engineering Papers⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Richard Campbell

Publications and source records attributed to Richard Campbell.

Subsonic Single Aft Engine (SUSAN) Transport Aircraft Concept and Trade Space Exploration

A trade space exploration of a new NASA regional transport aircraft concept called the SUbsonic Single Aft eNgine (SUSAN) Electrofan is presented. The SUSAN concept uses a 20MW Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) system to enable advance Propulsion Airframe Integration (PAI) in transport category aircraft. Alternative fuels will be used to reduce the amount of emissions per energy used. By combining these features there is the potential to reduce aircraft emissions by 50% per passenger/mile while retaining the size, speed, and range of large regional jets. SUSAN is has a 750 mile economic mission, a 2500 mile design range and a maximum capacity of 180 passengers. The SUSAN configuration utilizes a single aft mounted engine and distributed electric wing-mounted thrusters on a tube and wing arrangement with a T-tail empennage. The SUSAN Electrofan employs a hybrid powertrain to enable: single turbofan operation on a large transport category aircraft; increased aerodynamic and propulsive efficiency through placement of electric engines; optimized turbofan sizing and efficiency through control and electric boosting, reduced control surface sizing through thrust augmentation. A single use battery is employed as the power source in case of turbofan failure. The design study also considers the constraints of operating within the current airport, airspace and economic constraints. This paper presents the status of the trade space exploration; however the concept definition is not finished. Forward work includes optimizing the overall aircraft configuration and including certain hard to model features like boundary layer ingestion or natural laminar flow across all appliable subsystems. Additional work forward work is a more extensive analysis of the configuration using alternative fuels.

Ralph H. Jansen↗

Brief Overview of Subsonic Single Aft Engine (SUSAN) Transport Aircraft Concept and Trade Space Exploration

The SUSAN concept uses a 20-megawatt Electrified Aircraft Propulsion system to enable advance Propulsion Airframe Integration in transport category aircraft. Alternative fuels will be used to reduce the amount of emissions per energy used. By combining these features there is the potential to reduce aircraft emissions by 50 percent per passenger/mile while retaining the size, speed, and range of large regional jets. The SUSAN is has a 750-mile economic mission, a 2500-mile design range and a maximum capacity of 180 passengers. The SUSAN configuration utilizes a single aft mounted engine and distributed electric wing-mounted thrusters on a tube and wing arrangement with a T-tail empennage. The SUSAN Electrofan employs a hybrid powertrain to enable: single turbofan operation on a large transport category aircraft; increased aerodynamic and propulsive efficiency through placement of electric engines; optimized turbofan sizing and efficiency through control and electric boosting, reduced control surface sizing through thrust augmentation. A single use battery is employed as the power source in case of turbofan failure. The design study also considers the constraints of operating within the current airport, airspace, and economic constraints. Forward work includes optimizing the overall aircraft configuration and including certain hard to model features like boundary layer ingestion or natural laminar flow across all appliable subsystems. Additional work forward work is a more extensive analysis of the configuration using alternative fuels.

Ralph Jansen↗

CDISC Remote Design Method to Simulate Aircraft Interference Effects for the CATNLF Flight Test

The Crossflow Attenuated Natural Laminar Flow (CATNLF)flight test is an experimental evaluation of a laminar flow design approach that will be conducted on a small transonic wing-like model suspended from the Centerline Instrumented Pylon (CLIP) underneath an F-15 vehicle. The upcoming flight testis anticipated to provide experimental data that may be useful for transition prediction code calibrations or laminar flow computational studies. For the computational results to be reliable, relevant aerodynamics must be included in the simulations. It has been shown that the F-15 vehicle produces a notable aerodynamic influence on the CATNLF test article, and that removing the F-15 vehicle from the simulation significantly alters the laminar flow behavior. Because the F-15 vehicle is not a publicly-releasable geometry, if the CATNLF flight test dataset is to be widely used by the community, an alternative method to ensure that the CATNLF test article flight configuration aerodynamics is properly modeled is required. The objective of this research is to use the CDISC aerodynamic design tool to perform a remote design of a surface that would replicate the aerodynamic influence on the CATNLF test article. This new design approach, referred to as the Equivalent Loading via Interference Surface Effects (ELISE), is presented in this paper, including the details on the design setup and results. The ELISE design successfully reproduced theF-15 influence on the CATNLF test article, with predicted transition location within an average of 4% chord of the full flight configuration. An off-design assessment is included for small perturbations in Mach and sideslip angle that suggest the ELISE design can cover a reasonable range of expected flight conditions with the same geometry. This paper is intended to explain the design approach, as well as show results that can be expected when utilizing the ELISE design method.

CDISC↗

Transonic Cruise Slotted Wing Design for Commercial Transport Aircraft using CDISC

A knowledge-based aerodynamic design method, CDISC, has been extended to enable the computational design of transonic cruise slotted wings for commercial transport aircraft. The cruise slotted wing is a multielement wing concept with a forward main element and an aft flap element, separated to form an intermediate slot. This slot favorably redirects airflow from the main element lower surface toward the low-momentum, upper-surface boundary layer of the flap. Relative to the supercritical wing, the cruise slotted wing enables greater aft loading that helps to reduce shock strength and transonic pressure drag. The cruise slotted wing may be considered a passive drag-reduction technology with potential fuel burn savings and increased vehicle range for next-generation aircraft. The current paper seeks to quantify the drag-saving benefits of cruise slotted wing technology in application to single-aisle commercial transport aircraft. A series of multielement design constraints were developed within CDISC for the design of a partial-span, cruise slotted wing for a Mach-0.8 variant of the Common Research Model. To mitigate the skin-friction drag penalty associated with cruise slotted wings, the design features a flap with natural laminar flow over approximately 75% of the flap surface area. Cruise drag estimates from the NASA USM3D flow solver between a supercritical wing and the partial-span, cruise slotted wing design were within one drag count. Near-cruise, off-design analyses showed limited laminar flow sensitivity to angle of attack and a more gradual drag rise compared to a supercritical wing. Based on this demonstrated benefit, future work is motivated to design a cruise slotted wing with natural laminar flow on both wing elements to achieve a significant reduction in cruise drag while providing delayed drag divergence.

CDISC↗

Cruise Slotted Wing Design with Natural Laminar Flow for Transonic Commercial Transport Aircraft

The present computational study investigates the aerodynamic design and analysis of cruise slotted wings with natural laminar flow for transonic transport aircraft. The cruise slotted wing is a multielement wing concept that features an intermediate slot to achieve greater aft loading relative to supercritical wings for the potential benefit of reduced shock strength and pressure drag. Transonic near-cruise, off-design assessments have also shown improved drag rise characteristics due to the ability of the slot to mitigate boundary layer separation on the aft flap component. However, due to the decreased Reynolds number of the flap, the cruise slotted wing has historically incurred a skin-friction drag penalty relative to a conventional supercritical wing. To offset this penalty, a cruise slotted wing with the forward main element and aft flap element shaped to achieve natural laminar flow is desired. Toward this effort, a knowledge-based aerodynamic design method, CDISC, has been leveraged to design a partial-span cruise slotted wing with natural laminar flow for a Mach-0.8 variant of the Common Research Model. Drag comparisons will be provided at cruise and near-cruise, off-design conditions relative to both fully turbulent and natural laminar flow conventional wing designs. It is anticipated that pairing natural laminar flow technology with the cruise slotted wing architecture will allow for cruise drag performance similar to conventional laminar flow wings with improved drag rise characteristics and more limited laminar-flow sensitivity at off-design conditions. Preliminary results for a cruise slotted wing with laminar flow on the outboard wing section only have shown a 10-ct cruise drag reduction relative to a conventional supercritical wing, but a 8-ct penalty relative to the conventional NLF wing. The final paper will include results for a cruise slotted wing design with laminar flow on both the inboard and outboard wing sections.

Natural Laminar Flow↗