Assessment of Trailing-Edge Surface-Normal Active Flow Control for Lift Enhancement on High-Lift Systems

Speaker: Sheida Hosseini & James Koch, Computational Aerosciences Branch, NASA Ames Research Center
March 16, 2023

Presentation

Abstract

While takeoff and landing comprise a small percentage of the total flight/block time for most transport airplanes, the high lift systems (such as slats and flaps) utilized during these critical segments of flight play a significant role in airplane safety, size and economics. The FAA mandates various airspeed requirements to certify civil transport aircraft. Of particular interest to high-lift systems are requirements on the minimum unstick speed Vmu, for which test maneuvers are both extensive and relatively dangerous. Vmu testing is especially important for larger capacity members of commercial jet families: a longer fuselage introduces angle of attack limitations imposed by tail ground clearance and restricts both the minimum unstick speed during takeoff and the touchdown speed during landing. The ability to enhance high-lift systems through improved control of airplane lift in the linear regime is an active topic of research resulting in reduced takeoff and landing field lengths and improvement of commercial transport airplane safety and certification.

In this seminar, we discuss the application of microjets - small pneumatic jets blowing at an angle (predominantly normal) from the surface - as an Active Flow Control (AFC) technology to control circulation and thereby enhance high-lift performance. Various 2D and 3D computational and 2D experimental studies which investigate microjet technology through a building block approach will be showcased.

This work is supported by NASA ARMD’s Advanced Air Transport Technology (AATT) project.

Biography

Sheida Hosseini, Ph.D. is a research aerospace engineer in the Computational Aerosciences Branch at NASA Ames Research Center. Sheida’s work focuses mainly on applied computational fluid dynamics, with an emphasis on aero technologies. She has been involved with research on active flow control, revolutionary vertical lift technology, compact nacelles, riblets, and buffet prediction. She earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace engineering from the University of California Davis in 2020. Sheida also worked for the Boeing Company prior to joining NASA.

James Koch has been a research engineer in the Computational Aerosciences branch at the NASA Ames Research Center since 2020. While his past CFD research has ranged from modeling of desalination membrane technologies to development of adjoint optimization methods, he is currently focused on aerodynamic CFD applications and expansion of overset gridding capabilities. James holds an MS and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and a BA in Physics from Grinnell College.