21st Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Melbourne, Australia, 13-18 September, 1998
Paper ICAS-98-1.7.5

PREDICTION OF HIGH-? AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MANEUVERING AIRCRAFT

Mendenhall M. R., Perkins S. C., Hegedus M. C.
Nielsen Engineering and Research, USA

Keywords: prediction, high-a, aerodynamic characteristics, maneuvering aircraft

A physics-based preliminary-design prediction and analysis capability applicable to vehicles in unsteady maneuvers involving nonlinear, time-dependent flow conditions is described. The approach is a direct coupling of fluid dynamics and flight mechanics for use in the flight regimes where the flow phenomena are dominated by vorticity and separation associated with high angles of attack and rapid motions. This method is applicable to generic configurations, it is not dependent on specific empirical information, and it is economical to use. The resulting method, embodied in a computer code called SHAMAN, can be used as a prediction capability for specified vehicle motions or flow conditions, or it can be coupled with a six -degree-of-freedom equation-of-motion solver to predict flight trajectories and transient performance characteristics. Post-stall flight regimes are handled with empirical correlations of wing data. The method is validated by comparison with static and dynamic wind tunnel data on a variety of wing-alone and wingbody configurations.

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