Nacelle design

The external cowlings of engine nacelles on large turbofan powered aircraft are good candidates for application of natural laminar flow. These nacelles usually have shorter characteristic lengths than other candidate surfaces such as wings and fuselages and therefore have lower characteristic Reynolds numbers. A conceptive figure of the natural flow nacelle (NLF) is shown. On the typical nacelle the flow accelerates to a curvature induced velocity peak near the lip and then decelerates over the remainder of the nacelle length. Transition occurs near the start of the deceleration, so turbulent flow with high friction coefficient exists over most of the nacelle length. On the other hand, the NLF nacelle is contoured to have an accelerating flow over most of its length, so transition is delayed, and a relatively lower friction drag exists over most of the nacelle. The motivation for development of the LFN is a potential 40 to 50 percent reduction in nacelle friction drag

Status report on a natural laminar-flow nacelle flight experiment

The natural laminar flow (NLF) nacelle experiment is part of a drag reduction production program, and has the dual objectives of studying the extent of NLF on full scale nacelles in a flight environment and the effect of acoustic disturbance on the location of transition on the nacelle surface. The experiment is being conducted in two phases: (1) an NLF fairing was flown on a full scale Citation nacelle to develop the experiment technique and establish feasibility; (2) full scale, flow through, NLF nacelles located below the right wing of an experimental NASA OV-1 aircraft are evaluated. The measurements of most interest are the static pressure distribution and transition location on the nacelle surface, and the fluctuating pressure levels associated with the noise sources. Data are collected in combinations of acoustic frequencies and sound pressure levels. The results of phase 2 tests to date indicate that on shape GE2, natural laminar flow was maintained as far aft as the afterbody joint at 50 percent of the nacelle length. An aft facing step at this joint caused premature transition at this station. No change was observed in the transition pattern when the noise sources were operated