Applications of Flow Control to a Commercial Aircraft
Speakers: Arvin Shmilovich, Boeing Research and Technology; and Paul Vijgen, Boeing Commercial Aircraft (Retired)
Presentation
Abstract
This presentation will cover selected material from the three papers presented by Boeing at the 2023 AIAA SciTech conference, summarizing the NASA funded Localized AFC (Active Flow Control) project. The presentation is dedicated to the memory of Dr. John C. Lin of NASA who initiated this project. John was a passionate pioneer and promoter of modern AFC technologies. This study helped identify promising flow control concepts for high-lift applications that potentially could provide material net airplane-level performance improvements, such as longer range, larger payload and/or reduced runway length. Such advantages have major ramifications for future airplanes from both the economic and environmental perspectives. Various wing flow control techniques were explored using CFD and the aerodynamic performance enhancements were benchmarked against the baseline configuration. The computational analyses are used to quantify aerodynamic benefits, as well as the input required for actuation. This information was used to facilitate a conceptual system integration study, and to establish potential net airplane performance gains, with the goal of identifying the most practical AFC candidates. Recently, one of the candidate AFC concepts has been experimentally evaluated by NASA on the High-Lift version of the CRM model in the NASA-Langley 14x22-ft facility.
This seminar is in Memory of John Lin of NASA.
Biography
Arvin Shmilovich is a Technical Fellow in the Boeing Research and Technology organization. He is engaged in research and development in the areas of CFD, aerodynamics, propulsion and flow control, for a range of vehicles including airplanes, rotorcraft and space launch systems. In the area of flow control he has developed techniques targeting vortex control, pneumatic flight controls, variable engine exhaust and high-lift. Arvin has more than 40 patents and patent applications targeting novel propulsion/airframe integrated systems, flow control, noise reduction and energy harvesting. Arvin received a B.Sc. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. He worked for one year at Raphael / Advanced Defense Systems, Israel, before attending graduate school at Cornell University, where he got a PhD in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Paul Vijgen received a MS from Delft University and a Doctor-of-Engineering degree from The University of Kansas. Paul was in the Technical Fellowship while at Boeing Commercial Aircraft (BCA) in Seattle. His main areas of interest have been active and passive flow control topics – including adaptive geometries. Some such features are incorporated in the 787 family. He has about 16 patents and around 50 technical publications. He retired from Boeing’s BCA Configuration Aerodynamics team in November 2022 - after more than 28 years at Boeing. Before that, he was about 7 years at NASA Langley (High Technology Corporation) working flow-physics and wing-tip topics, including laminar-flow and high-lift flight-testing.