Drag reduction by laminar flow control

Drag reduction by laminar flow control

Beck, Nils (Technical University of Braunschweig)
Landa, Tim (Technical University of Braunschweig)
Seitz, Arne (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR))
Boermans, L.M.M. (TU Delft Aerodynamics)
Liu, Yaolong (Technical University of Braunschweig)
Radespiel, Rolf (Technical University of Braunschweig)

2018-01-01

The Energy System Transition in Aviation research project of the Aeronautics Research Center Niedersachsen (NFL) searches for potentially game-changing technologies to reduce the carbon footprint of aviation by promoting and enabling new propulsion and drag reduction technologies. The greatest potential for aerodynamic drag reduction is seen in laminar flow control by boundary layer suction. While most of the research so far has been on partial laminarization by application of Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) and Hybrid Laminar Flow Control (HLFC) to wings, complete laminarization of wings, tails and fuselages promises much higher gains. The potential drag reduction and suction requirements, including the necessary compressor power, are calculated on component level using a flow solver with viscid/inviscid coupling and a 3D Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver. The effect on total aircraft drag is estimated for a state-of-the-art mid-range aircraft configuration using preliminary aircraft design methods, showing that total cruise drag can be halved compared to today's turbulent aircraft.

Aircraft design
Boundary layer suction
Drag reduction
Laminar flow control
Transition

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:01e86e5e-c2eb-458f-8972-bdcbcb2d536e

https://doi.org/10.3390/en11010252

1996-1073

Energies, 11 (1)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2018 Nils Beck, Tim Landa, Arne Seitz, L.M.M. Boermans, Yaolong Liu, Rolf Radespiel