The NASA Juncture Flow Experiment: Goals, Progress, and Preliminary Testing (Invited)

NASA has been working toward designing and conducting a juncture flow experiment on a wing-body aircraft configuration. The experiment is planned to provide validation-quality data for CFD that focuses on the onset and progression of a separation bubble near the wing-body juncture trailing edge region. This paper describes the goals and purpose of the experiment. Although currently considered unreliable, preliminary CFD analyses of several different configurations are shown. These configurations have been subsequently tested in a series of "risk-reduction" wind tunnel tests, in order to help down-select to a final configuration that will attain the desired flow behavior. The risk-reduction testing at the higher Reynolds number has not yet been completed (at the time of this writing), but some results from one of the low-Reynolds-number experiments are shown

Aeroacoustic Study of a High-Fidelity Aircraft Model: Part 1- Steady Aerodynamic Measurements

In this paper, we present steady aerodynamic measurements for an 18% scale model of a Gulfstream air-craft. The high fidelity and highly-instrumented semi-span model was developed to perform detailed aeroacoustic studies of airframe noise associated with main landing gear/flap components and gear-flap interaction noise, as well as to evaluate novel noise reduction concepts. The aeroacoustic tests, being conducted in the NASA Langley Research Center 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel, are split into two entries. The first entry, completed November 2010, was entirely devoted to the detailed mapping of the aerodynamic characteristics of the fabricated model. Flap deflections of 39?, 20?, and 0? with the main landing gear on and off were tested at Mach numbers of 0.16, 0.20, and 0.24. Additionally, for each flap deflection, the model was tested with the tunnel both in the closed-wall and open-wall (jet) modes. During this first entry, global forces (lift and drag) and extensive steady and unsteady surface pressure measurements were obtained. Preliminary analysis of the measured forces indicates that lift, drag, and stall characteristics compare favorably with Gulfstream?s high Reynolds number flight data. The favorable comparison between wind-tunnel and flight data allows the semi-span model to be used as a test bed for developing/evaluating airframe noise reduction concepts under a relevant environment. Moreover, initial comparison of the aerodynamic measurements obtained with the tunnel in the closed- and open-wall configurations shows similar aerodynamic behavior. This permits the acoustic and off-surface flow measurements, planned for the second entry, to be conducted with the tunnel in the open-jet mode

Circulation Control Model Experimental Database for CFD Validation

A 2D circulation control wing was tested in the Basic Aerodynamic Research Tunnel at the NASA Langley Research Center. A traditional circulation control wing employs tangential blowing along the span over a trailing-edge Coanda surface for the purpose of lift augmentation. This model has been tested extensively at the Georgia Tech Research Institute for the purpose of performance documentation at various blowing rates. The current study seeks to expand on the previous work by documenting additional flow-field data needed for validation of computational fluid dynamics. Two jet momentum coefficients were tested during this entry: 0.047 and 0.114. Boundary-layer transition was investigated and turbulent boundary layers were established on both the upper and lower surfaces of the model. Chordwise and spanwise pressure measurements were made, and tunnel sidewall pressure footprints were documented. Laser Doppler Velocimetry measurements were made on both the upper and lower surface of the model at two chordwise locations (x/c = 0.8 and 0.9) to document the state of the boundary layers near the spanwise blowing slot