Wind Tunnel and Water Channel Investigations for Improving MAV Aerodynamic Performance

Abstract

Extensive investigations of the role of sweep in generating and/or stabilizing a leading edge vortex (LEV) in low Reynolds number (Re = 10 000) aerodynamics were made by tracing dye over wing shapes in a low-turbulence water channel. Unlike any other experiment to date, the variation in sweep was the only parameter change, all others being fixed. The airfoil shape was a cambered plate, which is close to optimal at such Re. LEVs are not generated readily and are unlikely to be significant contributors to aerodynamic performance in fixed wing aircraft at this Re. The flows are complex and almost always involve significant spanwise components. The results are being used to guide current wind-tunnel based quantitative flow investigations in selected two-dimensional planes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 14, 2007
Accession Number
ADA473928

Entities

People

  • Frederick Browand
  • Geoffrey Spedding
  • John Mcarthur

Organizations

  • University of California, Los Angeles

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Aspect Ratio
  • Boundary Layer
  • Boundary Layer Flow
  • Contracts
  • Flow
  • Flow Fields
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Geometry
  • Leading Edges
  • Reynolds Number
  • Swept Wings
  • Three Dimensional
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Two Dimensional
  • Wind Tunnels
  • Wing Tips

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.