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In this report a theory of thin airfoils of small camber is developed which permits either the velocity distribution corresponding to a given airfoil shape, or the airfoil shape corresponding to a given velocity distribution to be calculated. The procedures to be employed in these calculations are outlined and illustrated with suitable examples.
The NACA 6a-series airfoil sections were designed to eliminate the trailing-edge cusp which is characteristic of the NACA 6a-series sections. Theoretical data are presented for NACA 6a-series basic thickness forms having the position of minimum pressure of 30, 40, and 50 percent chord and with thickness ratios varying from 6 percent to 15 percent. Also presented are data for a mean line designed to maintain straight sides on the cambered sections.
Results are presented of an investigation made to determine the two-dimensional lift and drag characteristics of nine NACA 6-series airfoil section at Reynolds numbers of 15.0 x 10sub6, 20.0 x 10sub6, and 25.0 x 10sub6. Also presented are data from NACA Technical Report 824 for the same airfoils at Reynolds numbers of 3.0 x 10sub6, 6.0 x 10sub6, and 9.0 x 10sub6. The airfoils selected represent sections having variations in the airfoil thickness, thickness form, and camber. The characteristics of an airfoil with a split flap were determined in one instance, as was the effect of surface roughness. Qualitative explanations in terms of flow behavior are advanced for the observed types of scale effect.
The position of the beginning of transition laminar/turbulent as a function of the thickness and the camber of the profile at various Reynolds numbers and lift coefficients was investigated for a series of Joukowsky profiles. The calculation of the boundary layer was carried out according to the Pohlhausen method which may be continued by a simplified stability calculation according to H. Schlichting. A list of tables is given which permits the reading off of the position of the transition point on suction and pressure side for each Joukowsky profile.
This investigation was made to determine the effects of 6 degree full-spoan and 3 degree partial-span leading-edge flaps in combination with chord-extensions or fences on the aerodynamic characteristics of a wing-fuselage configuration with a 45 degree sweptback wing of aspect ratio 4, taper ratio 0.3, and NACA 65A006 airfoil sections. The investigation was made in the Langley high-speed 7- by 10-foot tunnel over a Mach number range of 0.40 to 0.93 and an angle-of-attack range of about -2 degrees to 24 degrees. Lift, drag, and pitching-moment data were obtained for all configurations. From overall considerations of stability and performance it appears that with the model of this investigation the 6 degree full-span leading-edge flaps in combination with the chord-extension over the outboard 35 percent of the span, with or without leading-edge camber, would be the most desirable configuration.
The design and experimental investigation of a single-stage supersonic turbine are presented herein. The turbine was designed for a rotor entering relative Mach number of 2. The maximum equivalent specific work output of the turbine at design speed and approximately design over-all pressure ratio was 32.9 BTU per pound at a static efficiency of 0.414. This static efficiency gave good verification to an independent reference that indicated theoretical static efficiencies for similar single-stage turbines within the range 0.40 to 0.45. An experimental ratio of effective rotor blade momentum thickness to mean camber length was determined to be 0.0014, which compares favorably with the results obtained from several transonic and subsonic turbines. The design procedure for this turbine would have been improved by allowing for more rotor losses by assuming a value of this momentum parameter comparable with those obtained from transonic turbines. Removing a large portion of the rotor suction surface enabled a lower static pressure to be felt at the stator exit, at the expense of higher rotor losses. The net result was an improvement in turbine work output of about 3 percent at design setting conditions. No problems associated with supersonic starting were encountered even under the worst conditions of turbine operation with respect to this problem.
Investigations on the flow phenomena at plates and cambered models were carried out with the aid of force measurements, some pressure distribution measurements, and photographic observation. The experimental methods are described and the results given. Section III of this work gives a comprehensive account of the results and enables us to see how nearly the lift line and lift surface theories agree with the experimental results.
Drag and loss of lift of a wing are attributable to the same cause, wake formation, thus indicating that there is some relation between both. The analysis of measurements on Joukowsky sections revealed a typical course of curves for the interdependence between drag and loss of lift. The shape of the curves apparently depends quite regularly on the mean camber and on the thickness of the profile.
In the following we develop a non-autorotating monoplane wing. The conditions imposed on such a wing, aside from its freedom from autorotation,with respect to its polars and its construction, are taken into account as far as possible. It is indicated that the autorotation characteristics of a wing are dependent upon the speed of air flow as well as on the angle of yaw. This report postulates the knowledge of the behavior of certain conventional wings of different chords and cambers with respect to their air loads at large angles of attack.
An investigation has been conducted to determine a set of optimal design parameters for a single-stage-to-orbit reentry vehicle. Several configuration geometry parameters which had a large impact on the entry vehicle flying characteristics were selected as design variables: the fuselage fineness ratio, the nose to body length ratio, the nose camber value, the wing planform area scale factor, and the wing location. The optimal geometry parameter values were chosen using a response surface methodology (RSM) technique which allowed for a minimum dry weight configuration design that met a set of aerodynamic performance constraints on the landing speed, and on the subsonic, supersonic, and hypersonic trim and stability levels. The RSM technique utilized, specifically the central composite design method, is presented, along with the general vehicle conceptual design process. Results are presented for an optimized configuration along with several design trade cases.
Increasing competition among airline manufacturers and operators has highlighted the issue of aircraft efficiency. Fewer aircraft orders have led to an all-out efficiency improvement effort among the manufacturers to maintain if not increase their share of the shrinking number of aircraft sales. Aircraft efficiency is important in airline profitability and is key if fuel prices increase from their current low. In a continuing effort to improve aircraft efficiency and develop an optimal performance technology base, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center developed and flight tested an adaptive performance seeking control system to optimize the quasi-steady-state performance of the F-15 aircraft. The demonstrated technology is equally applicable to transport aircraft although with less improvement. NASA Dryden, in transitioning this technology to transport aircraft, is specifically exploring the feasibility of applying adaptive optimal control techniques to performance optimization of redundant control effectors. A simulation evaluation of a preliminary control law optimizes wing-aileron camber for minimum net aircraft drag. Two submodes are evaluated: one to minimize fuel and the other to maximize velocity. This paper covers the status of performance optimization of the current fleet of subsonic transports. Available integrated controls technologies are reviewed to define approaches using active controls. A candidate control law for adaptive performance optimization is presented along with examples of algorithm operation.
An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effects of controllable articulating winglets on glide performance and yawing moments of high performance sailplanes. Testing was conducted in the Texas A&M University 7 x 10 foot Low Speed Wind Tunnel using a full-scale model of the outboard 5.6 feet of a 15 meter class high performance sailplane wing. Different wing tip configurations could be easily mounted to the wing model. A winglet was designed in which the cant and toe angles as well as a rudder on the winglet could be adjusted to a range of positions. Cant angles used in the investigation consisted of 5, 25, and 40 degrees measured from the vertical axis. Toe-out angles ranged from 0 to 22.5 degrees. A rudder on the winglet was used to study the effects of changing the camber of the winglet airfoil on wing performance and wing yawing moments. Rudder deflections consisted of-10, 0, and 10 degrees. Test results for a fixed geometry winglet and a standard wing tip are presented to show the general behavior of winglets on sailplane wings, and the effects of boundary-layer turbulators on the winglets are also presented. By tripping the laminar boundary-layer to turbulent before laminar separation occurs, the wing performance was increased at low Reynolds numbers. The effects on the lift and drag, yawing moment, pitching moment, and wing root bending moment of the model are presented. Oil flows were used on the wing model with the fixed geometry winglet and the standard wing tip to visualize flow directions and areas of boundary layer transition. A cant angle of 25 degrees and a toe-out angle of 2.5 degrees provided an optimal increase in wing performance for the cant and toe angles tested. Maximum performance was obtained when the winglet rudder remained in the neutral position of zero degrees. By varying the cant, toe, and rudder angles from their optimized positions, wing performance decreases. Although the winglet rudder proved to be more effective in increasing the yawing moment compared to varying the cant and toe angles, the amount of increased yawing moment was insignificant when compared to that produced by the vertical tail. A rudder on the winglet was determined to be ineffective for providing additional yaw control.
The recent interest in High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) has resulted in renewed research studies of optimized supersonic cruise transport configurations. Incorporation of flow viscosity effects in the design process of such a supersonic wing is currently under investigation. This may lead to more accurate problem formulations and, in turn, greater aerodynamic efficiency than can be obtained by the traditional, inviscid, linear theories. In this context, for a design code to be a candidate for a complex optimization problem, such as three-dimensional viscous supersonic wing design, it should be validated using simpler building-block shapes. To optimize the shape of a supersonic wing, an automated method that also includes higher fidelity to the flow physics is desirable. With this impetus, an aerodynamic optimization methodology incorporating Navier-Stokes equations and sensitivity analysis had been previously developed. Prior to embarking upon the wing design task, the present investigation concentrated on testing the flexibility of the methodology, and the identification of adequate problem formulations, by defining two-dimensional, cost-effective test cases. Starting with two distinctly different initial airfoils, two independent shape optimizations resulted in shapes with very similar features. Secondly, the normal section to the subsonic portion of the leading edge, which had a high normal angle-of-attack, was considered. The optimization resulted in a shape with twist and camber, which eliminated the adverse pressure gradient, hence, exploiting the leading-edge thrust. The wing section shapes obtained in all the test cases had the features predicted by previous studies. Therefore, it was concluded that the flowfield analyses and the sensitivity coefficients were computed and fed to the present gradient-based optimizer correctly. Also, as a result of the present two-dimensional study, suggestions were made for problem formulations which should contribute to an effective wing shape optimization.
This report provides an updated version of analytical documentation for the V072 Rotor Wake/Stator Interaction Code. It presents the theoretical derivation of the equations used in the code and, where necessary, it documents the enhancements and changes made to the original code since its first release. V072 is a package of FORTRAN computer programs which calculate the in-duct acoustic modes excited by a fan/stator stage operating in a subsonic mean flow. Sound is generated by the stator vanes interacting with the mean wakes of the rotor blades. In this updated version, only the tonal noise produced at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics, is described. The broadband noise component analysis, which was part of the original report, is not included here. The code provides outputs of modal pressure and power amplitudes generated by the rotor-wake/stator interaction. The rotor/stator stage is modeled as an ensemble of blades and vanes of zero camber and thickness enclosed within an infinite hard-walled annular duct. The amplitude of each propagating mode is computed and summed to obtain the harmonics of sound power flux within the duct for both upstream and downstream propagating modes.
An incremental iterative formulation together with the well-known spatially split approximate-factorization algorithm, is presented for solving the large, sparse systems of linear equations that are associated with aerodynamic sensitivity analysis. This formulation is also known as the 'delta' or 'correction' form. For the smaller two dimensional problems, a direct method can be applied to solve these linear equations in either the standard or the incremental form, in which case the two are equivalent. However, iterative methods are needed for larger two-dimensional and three dimensional applications because direct methods require more computer memory than is currently available. Iterative methods for solving these equations in the standard form are generally unsatisfactory due to an ill-conditioned coefficient matrix; this problem is overcome when these equations are cast in the incremental form. The methodology is successfully implemented and tested using an upwind cell-centered finite-volume formulation applied in two dimensions to the thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations for external flow over an airfoil. In three dimensions this methodology is demonstrated with a marching-solution algorithm for the Euler equations to calculate supersonic flow over the High-Speed Civil Transport configuration (HSCT 24E). The sensitivity derivatives obtained with the incremental iterative method from a marching Euler code are used in a design-improvement study of the HSCT configuration that involves thickness. camber, and planform design variables.
The early breed of slow commercial airliners did not require high-lift systems because their wing loadings were low and their speed ratios between cruise and low speed (takeoff and landing) were about 2:1. However, even in those days the benefit of high-lift devices was recognized. Simple trailing-edge flaps were in use, not so much to reduce landing speeds, but to provide better glide-slope control without sideslipping the airplane and to improve pilot vision over the nose by reducing attitude during low-speed flight. As commercial-airplane cruise speeds increased with the development of more powerful engines, wing loadings increased and a real need for high-lift devices emerged to keep takeoff and landing speeds within reasonable limits. The high-lift devices of that era were generally trailing-edge flaps. When jet engines matured sufficiently in military service and were introduced commercially, airplane speed capability had to be increased to best take advantage of jet engine characteristics. This speed increase was accomplished by introducing the wing sweep and by further increasing wing loading. Whereas increased wing loading called for higher lift coefficients at low speeds, wing sweep actually decreased wing lift at low speeds. Takeoff and landing speeds increased on early jet airplanes, and, as a consequence, runways worldwide had to be lengthened. There are economical limits to the length of runways; there are safety limits to takeoff and landing speeds; and there are speed limits for tires. So, in order to hold takeoff and landing speeds within reasonable limits, more powerful high-lift devices were required. Wing trailing-edge devices evolved from plain flaps to Fowler flaps with single, double, and even triple slots. Wing leading edges evolved from fixed leading edges to a simple Krueger flap, and from fixed, slotted leading edges to two- and three-position slats and variable-camber (VC) Krueger flaps. The complexity of high-lift systems probably peaked on the Boeing 747, which has a VC Krueger flap and triple-slotted, inboard and outboard trailing-edge flaps. Since then, the tendency in high-lift system development has been to achieve high levels of lift with simpler devices in order to reduce fleet acquisition and maintenance costs. The intent of this paper is to: (1) review available high-lift devices, their functions, and design criteria; (2) appraise high-lift systems presently in service on commercial air liners; (3) present personal study results on high-lift systems; (4) develop a weight and cost model for high-lift systems; and (5) discuss the development tendencies of future high-lift systems.
This paper presents a survey of the effects of Reynolds number on the low- speed lift characteristics of wings encountering separated flows at their leading and side edges, with emphasis on the region near the stall. The influence of leading-edge profile and Reynolds number on the stall characteristics of two- dimensional airfoils are reviewed first to provide a basis for evaluating three- dimensional effects associated with various wing planforms. This is followed by examples of the effects of Reynolds number and geometry on the lift characteristics near the stall for a series of three-dimensional wings typical of those suitable for high-speed aircraft and missiles. Included are examples of the effects of wing geometry on the onset and spanwise progression of turbulent reseparation near the leading edge and illustrations of the degree to which simplified theoretical approaches can be useful in defining the influence of the various geometric parameters. Also illustrated is the manner in which the Reynolds number and wing geometry parameters influence whether the turbulent reseparation near the leading edge results in a sudden loss of lift, as in the two-dimensional case, or the formation of a leading-edge vortex with Rs increase in lift followed by a gentle stall as in the highly swept wing case. Particular emphasis is placed on the strong influence of 'induced camber' on the development of turbulent reseparation. R is believed that the examples selected for this report may be useful in evaluating viscous flow solutions by the new computational methods based on the Navier-Stokes equations as well as defining fruitful research areas for the high-Reynolds-number wind tunnels.
Computer programs to produce the ordinates for airfoils of any thickness, thickness distribution, or camber in the NACA airfoil series were developed in the early 1970's and are published as NASA TM X-3069 and TM X-3284. For analytic airfoils, the ordinates are exact. For the 6-series and all but the leading edge of the 6A-series airfoils, agreement between the ordinates obtained from the program and previously published ordinates is generally within 5 x 10(exp -5) chord. Since the publication of these programs, the use of personal computers and individual workstations has proliferated. This report describes a computer program that combines the capabilities of the previously published versions. This program is written in ANSI FORTRAN 77 and can be compiled to run on DOS, UNIX, and VMS based personal computers and workstations as well as mainframes. An effort was made to make all inputs to the program as simple as possible to use and to lead the user through the process by means of a menu.