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Creation and Validation of Early Stage Conceptual Design Methodology for Blended Wing- Body Aircraft

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Creation and Validation of Early Stage Conceptual Design Methodology for Blended Wing- Body Aircraft DEGREE PROJECT IN VEHICLE ENGINEERING, SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 2019 Creation and Validation of Early Stage Conceptual Design Methodology for Blended Wing- Body Aircraft ALEXANDER LEJON KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES Creation and Validation of Early Stage Conceptual Design Methodology for Blended Wing-Body Aircraft ALEXANDER LEJON Master of Science of Vehicle Engineering Date: July 2, 2019 Supervisor: Alessandro Sgueglia Examiner: Ulf Ringertz School of Engineering Sciences Host organization: Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace, Toulouse, France Swedish title: Formulering och Validering av Designprocess för Flygfarkoster med Sammansmält Kropp och Vinge iii Abstract The current design paradigm for developing tube-and-wing style aircraft has been well documented in literature. This research attempts to develop and val- idate a similar design methodology to what is presently utilized for tube-and- wing based aircraft, but has so far not been successfully implemented for the blended wing-body. This construction has no clear distinction between the lift generating surfaces and the cargo carrying structure. The methodology that was developed included the concatenation and validation of low-fidelity, low speed and low complexity aerodynamic models in order to allow for quick and simple analysis of a large number of possible geometries. This enables the user efficiently determine the most promising candidate geometries for further study and/or development. Known issues with the low velocity and low com- plexity aerodynamic models include the absence of shock wave modelling, an important part in determining the aerodynamic performance of a lift generat- ing surface. The result of this work is the creation and documentation of a procedure for early-stage design of a blended wing-body airframe. However, due to convergence issues with the high-fidelity CFD solver, the methodology could not been validated for transonic flow. It can thus be only considered valid for flow velocities for which the Prandtl-Glauert correction is valid. iv Sammanfattning Den befintliga konstruktionsmetodiken för utveckling och design av flygfar- koster är väl dokumenterad i tidigare publicerad litteratur. Detta arbete äm- mar utveckla och validera en liknande metodologi som redan existerar för de väl etablerade flygplansgeometrier som baseras på cylinder/vingar-principen. Metoden som utvecklades inkluderade sammansättaning och validering av ti- digare existerande lågupplösta samt lågkomplexa aerodynamiska modeller av- sedda för beräkning av flödesekvationer för inkompressibel, friktionsfri och stationär strömning. Detta var avsett att möjliggöra ögonblicksvalidering av en föreslagen sammansmält kropp/vinge-geometri med speciell fokus på vissa prestationsbaserade nyckeltal. För cylinder/vinge-geometrier är dessa lågupp- lösta metoder i litteraturen väletablerat inexakta på grund av en avsaknad av stötvågsmodellering, men då stora delar av de lyftkraftsgenererande ytorna för- ändrats på en sammansmält kropp/vinge är inte nödvändigtvis detta sant för den typen av flygplan också. Då de högupplösta, mer komplexa höghastighets- simuleringarna inte konvergerade inom den utsatta tiden kan den föreslagna metodiken endast anses giltig för det intervall av flödeshastighet vari Prandtl- Glauerts korrektionsfaktor stämmer väl överens med verkligheten. Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Research Question . .2 2 Background 3 2.1 Previous studies . .3 2.2 Baseline Geometry . .4 2.3 The Vortex Lattice Method . .5 2.4 Euler Equations . .6 2.4.1 Jameson-Schmidt-Turkel . .6 3 Method 7 3.1 Requirements on new geometry . .7 3.2 Athena Vortex Lattice . .7 3.2.1 Verifying the AVL model . .9 3.3 SU2 simulations . .9 3.3.1 Preprocessing . .9 3.3.2 Solver settings . .9 3.4 Results Interpretation . 10 4 Results 11 4.1 Developed design meators . 11 4.2 Results from AVL . 11 4.3 The new baseline geometry . 12 4.4 Euler verification with SU2 . 13 5 Discussion 14 5.1 Geometry creation . 14 5.2 AVL solution accuracy . 14 5.3 SU2 Simulations . 15 v vi CONTENTS 6 Conclusions 16 6.1 Method validity . 16 6.2 Proposed new geometry . 16 6.3 Further studies . 16 References 18 A Glossary 21 B Baseline Geometry 22 C Sampling probability distribution 24 D BWB Parameters 25 E AVL Solver settings 26 F Full table of simulation results from AVL 27 G Lift distributions from AVL for new baseline geometry 39 H Overview of new Baseline Geometry 43 I Results from SU2 44 Chapter 1 Introduction One of the biggest concerns within the field of aerial travel today and aero- nautics in particular is the efficiency of short- and medium-range aerial pas- senger and cargo transport. The explosive growth in flown kilometers per year shows no signs of stopping, if anything - it is still on the ascendancy with some authors estimate that by 2050, the emissions caused by aerial transporta- tion would in and of itself account for the total annual CO2 budget - i.e. the amount of carbon dioxide that the ecosystem on Earth can absorb [1]. This leads to the conclusion that either aviation needs to become more efficient or the air travel behaviour of society needs to change. Whilst a com- bination of the two might be possible, with improving socioeconomic status in many high-population countries such as China and India it is not likely that the amount of people using aviation as a form of travel will see a dramatic decline over the coming decades [2]. Aircraft efficiency has developed rapidly since the early days of commer- cial jet travel in the 1960’s. High-bypass turbofans, winglets and changes in material composition of the aircraft have all contributed to the improvement, but there are only so many efficiency improvements that can be made when the principal issue lies with the design of the airframe. [nasabwb] With efficiency being one of the principal concerns today, it is necessary to review whether a change in airframe design would be pertinent. One of the alternative geometries to the tube-and-wing (TW-configuration) is the blended wing-body (BWB), where there is no clear distinction between the body and the wing of the aircraft. Previous studies regarding the blended wing-body’s efficiency have shown a clear improvement with regards to air- craft fuel economy, in the range of a 15-30% reduction in fuel burn per seat. [3] 1 2 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION However, studies performed on short/mid-range blended wing-bodies have had mixed results - many of the Boeing Company’s results point to short/mid- range blended wing-body designs being unfeasible but a study made at ISAE Supaero/ONERA shows an improvement in efficiency over the A320neo at ranges between 800 and 1200 nautical miles. [4] [5] A study made at NASA Langley and NASA Glenn shows similar results, showing reductions in block fuel burn of up to 45%, compared to the TW. [6] Further studies on the blended wing-body are necessary in order to de- termine at which ranges it would be advantageous to use over the prevailing tube-and-wing airframe. The present work will attempt to outline an early stage conceptual design procedure for a blended wing-body and suggest an update to the baseline geometry created at ISAE Supaero. [5] The design processes for a BWB are, naturally, not as well developed as they are for the TW-configuration, with the latter having decades of experience and empirical data to draw on. Currently, there exists a gap in the methodology employed for early stage conceptual BWB design, with no clear methodology developed to quickly determine the most basic parameters for a BWB such as lift-to-drag ratio, static margin and stall characteristics. This thesis will aim to compare inviscid high and low fidelity aerodynamic models for a blended wing-body aircraft and thus determine whether a low fi- delity aerodynamic model is applicable during the cruise stage (and in exten- sion, during take-off and approach) for a blended wing-body aircraft. The final objective is to allow this method to be integrated into the FAST tool, a multi- parametric optimization design tool developed at Onera and ISAE Supaero as a way of including BWB design into the tool. [7] 1.1 Research Question Are low fidelity aerodynamic models like the Vortex Lattice Method applica- ble and valid during early stage conceptual design for transonic cruise stage analysis of a blended wing-body aircraft? Chapter 2 Background Researchers at ISAE Supaero and ONERA have previously proposed a base- line geometry for a short-medium range blended wing-body (BWB). However, during review of this geometry, issues were found with the aerodynamic per- formance of the proposed baseline design. The issues that were raised con- cerned the stall characteristics and a static margin that was far from what was desired. This lead to the conclusion that in order to be able to quickly deter- mine the rough performance of a proposed blended wing-body aircraft, a new methodology that allowed for quick design and simulation was required. The geometry parameters that were theorized to have an effect on the aerodynamic performance of the blended wing-body are listed in appendix D table D.1. The process of designing a BWB has not been extensively documented, but an attempt at saving the accumulated knowledge about specifically flying wings has been made by K. Nickel and M. Wohlfahrt in [8]. The aim of this thesis is to formulate and validate an early stage design process of blended wing-bodies using currently available tools and methods, and use the developed methodology to suggest a replacement baseline blended wing-body geometry. 2.1 Previous studies A composite study made by Liebeck [3] indicates that the blended wing-body could reduce fuel burn by up to 27% per seat mile. Other studies have indicated a similar efficiency improvement over the classical tube-wing-design [4] for large blended wing-bodies.
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