CFD-FASTRAN is a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package developed by Applied Materials for aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic applications. [1]
CFD-FASTRAN was used by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in South Africa to simulate the release of a missile from the outboard pylon of the BAE Hawk Mk120 at transonic speeds where shockwaves dominate the flowfield. The software was used to calculate the carriage loads, which are structural dynamic responses from the ejection forces, and model the loads on the missile in free-flight. [2]
The software was used to predict supercooled droplet impingement on helicopter blades by the Institute for Aerospace Research. This is progress towards simulating ice formation on rotating helicopter blades. [3]
CFD-FASTRAN was used to study the aerodynamic performance of a hypersonic vehicle powered by scramjet engines. Flow conditions were simulated at various angles of attack at Mach 5.85. [4]
Two-dimensional numerical flow simulations were performed with CFD-FASTRAN to compare the effects of a combined jet flap and Coanda jet on a supercritical airfoil. The results showed that the combined jet flap provided the best performance. [5]
CFD-FASTRAN was used to simulate flow past helicopter rotors in hover and forward flight conditions. The predictions matched the experimental data. [6]
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expressed as its lift-to-drag ratio. The lift a wing generates at a given speed and angle of attack can be one to two orders of magnitude greater than the total drag on the wing. A high lift-to-drag ratio requires a significantly smaller thrust to propel the wings through the air at sufficient lift.
For fixed-wing aircraft, ground effect is the reduced aerodynamic drag that an aircraft's wings generate when they are close to a fixed surface. During takeoff, ground effect can cause the aircraft to "float" while below the recommended climb speed. The pilot can then fly just above the runway while the aircraft accelerates in ground effect until a safe climb speed is reached.
A scramjet is a variant of a ramjet airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to compress the incoming air forcefully before combustion, but whereas a ramjet decelerates the air to subsonic velocities before combustion using shock cones, a scramjet has no shock cone and slows the airflow using shockwaves produced by its ignition source in place of a shock cone. This allows the scramjet to operate efficiently at extremely high speeds.
Transonic flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number, but transonic flow is seen at flight speeds close to the speed of sound, typically between Mach 0.8 and 1.2.
Retreating blade stall is a hazardous flight condition in helicopters and other rotary wing aircraft, where the retreating rotor blade has a lower relative blade speed, combined with an increased angle of attack, causing a stall and loss of lift. Retreating blade stall is the primary limiting factor of a helicopter's never exceed speed, VNE.
The vortex ring state (VRS) is a dangerous aerodynamic condition that may arise in helicopter flight, when a vortex ring system engulfs the rotor, causing severe loss of lift. Often the term settling with power is used as a synonym, e.g., in Australia, the UK, and the US, but not in Canada, which uses the latter term for a different phenomenon.
Low-g condition is a phase of aerodynamic flight where the airframe is temporarily unloaded. The pilot—and the airframe—feel temporarily "weightless" because the aircraft is in free-fall or decelerating vertically at the top of a climb. It may also occur during an excessively rapid entry into autorotation. This can have a disastrous effect on the aircraft, particularly in the case of helicopters, some of which need the rotor to constantly be under a non-zero amount of load.
On a helicopter, the main rotor or rotor system is the combination of several rotary wings with a control system, that generates the aerodynamic lift force that supports the weight of the helicopter, and the thrust that counteracts aerodynamic drag in forward flight. Each main rotor is mounted on a vertical mast over the top of the helicopter, as opposed to a helicopter tail rotor, which connects through a combination of drive shaft(s) and gearboxes along the tail boom. The blade pitch is typically controlled by the pilot using the helicopter flight controls. Helicopters are one example of rotary-wing aircraft (rotorcraft). The name is derived from the Greek words helix, helik-, meaning spiral; and pteron meaning wing.
A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines a rotorcraft as "supported in flight by the reactions of the air on one or more rotors".
The Bölkow Bo 46 was a West German experimental helicopter built to test the Derschmidt rotor system that aimed to allow much higher speeds than traditional helicopter designs. Wind tunnel testing showed promise, but the Bo 46 demonstrated a number of problems and added complexity that led to the concept being abandoned. The Bo 46 was one of a number of new designs exploring high-speed helicopter flight that were built in the early 1960s.
The BERP rotor blade design was developed under the British Experimental Rotor Programme. The initial BERP rotor blades were developed in the late 1970s to mid-1980s as a joint venture programme between Westland Helicopters and the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), with Professor Martin Lowson as a co-patentee. The goal was to increase the helicopters lifting-capability and maximum speed using new designs and materials.
Specialized wind energy software applications aid in the development and operation of wind farms.
The exoskeletal engine (ESE) is a concept in turbomachinery design. Current gas turbine engines have central rotating shafts and fan-discs and are constructed mostly from heavy metals. They require lubricated bearings and need extensive cooling for hot components. They are also subject to severe imbalance that could wipe out the whole rotor stage, are prone to high- and low-cycle fatigue, and subject to catastrophic failure due to disc bursts from high tensile loads, consequently requiring heavy containment devices. To address these limitations, the ESE concept turns the conventional configuration inside-out and utilizes a drum-type rotor design for the turbomachinery in which the rotor blades are attached to the inside of a rotating drum instead of radially outwards from a shaft and discs. Multiple drum rotors could be used in a multi-spool design.
Aharon Isser was a leading Israeli aeronautical engineer. He contributed much to the modeling of aerodynamic effects on helicopter airfoils and on the flight dynamics of missile systems. Conducting research at the Israel Institute of Technology, or the Technion, Aharon Isser published many of his papers in the Journal of the American Helicopter Society.
QBlade is a public source, cross-platform simulation software for wind turbine blade design and aerodynamic simulation. It comes with a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) based on Qt.
A cyclorotor, cycloidal rotor, cycloidal propeller or cyclogiro, is a fluid propulsion device that converts shaft power into the acceleration of a fluid using a rotating axis perpendicular to the direction of fluid motion. It uses several blades with a spanwise axis parallel to the axis of rotation and perpendicular to the direction of fluid motion. These blades are cyclically pitched twice per revolution to produce force in any direction normal to the axis of rotation. Cyclorotors are used for propulsion, lift, and control on air and water vehicles. An aircraft using cyclorotors as the primary source of lift, propulsion, and control is known as a cyclogyro or cyclocopter. A unique aspect is that it can change the magnitude and direction of thrust without the need of tilting any aircraft structures. The patented application, used on ships with particular actuation mechanisms both mechanical or hydraulic, is named after German company Voith Turbo.
A blade vortex interaction (BVI) is an unsteady phenomenon of three-dimensional nature, which occurs when a rotor blade passes within a close proximity of the shed tip vortices from a previous blade. The aerodynamic interactions represent an important topic of investigation in rotorcraft research field due to the adverse influence produced on rotor noise, particularly in low speed descending flight condition or maneuver, which generates high amplitude impulsive noise.
An annular lift fan aircraft is a conceptual vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft that was first systematically and numerically investigated in 2015. This concept was proposed to offer a VTOL solution for both high hovering efficiency and high cruise speed, using a large annular lift fan instead of the relatively small conventional circular lift fans used in the Ryan XV-5 Vertifan and the F-35B Lightning II (JSF).
The dynamic stall is one of the hazardous phenomena on helicopter rotors, which can cause the onset of large torsional airloads and vibrations on the rotor blades. Unlike fixed-wing aircraft, of which the stall occurs at relatively low flight speed, the dynamic stall on a helicopter rotor emerges at high airspeeds or/and during manoeuvres with high load factors of helicopters, when the angle of attack(AOA) of blade elements varies intensively due to time-dependent blade flapping, cyclic pitch and wake inflow. For example, during forward flight at the velocity close to VNE, velocity, never exceed, the advancing and retreating blades almost reach their operation limits whereas flows are still attached to the blade surfaces. That is, the advancing blades operate at high Mach numbers so low values of AOA is needed but shock-induced flow separation may happen, while the retreating blade operates at much lower Mach numbers but the high values of AoA result in the stall.