Experimental investigation and Aerodynamic shape Optimization of an Aircraft

Continuous pressure to achieve reductions in direct operating cost (D.O.C.) combined with ever tightening environmental constraints has left aircraft designer with little option but to explore the possibilities offered by more novel configurations. The constant need to improve aerodynamic efficiency of an aircraft is one of the challenges in the aerospace field. This lead to the invention of various technologies like wingtip devices (called winglets), Blended-wing Body Aircraft (BWB), etc. The thorough study of present designs of Aircraft body for air flow velocity, induced drag lift & inventions like; Winglets & Blended-Wing Body aircraft, for design errors or to look for improvement that affects the efficiency. The blended-wing body is an aircraft configuration that has the potential to be more efficient than conventional large transport aircraft configurations with the same capability. However, the design of the blended-wing is challenging due to the tight coupling between aerodynamic performance, trim, and stability. Other design challenges include the nature and number of the design variables involved, and the transonic ow conditions. To address these issues, we perform a series of aerodynamic shape modification studies using Reynolds-averaged Naiver Stokes computational fluid dynamics with a turbulence model. A gradient-based modification is used in conjunction with a discrete adjoin method that computes the derivatives of the aerodynamic forces. A total of design variables angle of attack, air foil shape, chord, and span, structural load, dynamic loading |are considered. The drag coefficient at the cruise condition is minimized subject to lift, trim, static margin, and Centre plane bending moment constraints. The studies investigate the impact of the various constraints and design variables on optimized blended-wing-body configurations. The lowest drag among the trimmed and stable configurations is obtained by enforcing a 1% static margin constraint, resulting in a nearly elliptical span wise lift distribution. Trim and static stability are investigated at both on- and design flight conditions. The single-point designs are relatively robust to the flight conditions, but further robustness is achieved through a multi-point modification. The result of the study will be applied & the modelling of the improved design will be done & this design will be verified by analysis both with Static & Dynamic Simulation. Final results will provide the new improved design aspects for efficiency improvement.