This paper proposes a new wind turbine concept suitable for low-speed winds. The design is studied using a combination of wind-tunnel experimentation and aerodynamic theory. After processing the experimental results, and after comparison with theory, the optimal conditions for the operation of the turbine are identified. Experimental and theoretical results suggest that the design offers a realistic alternative to conventional horizontal axis wind turbines. In addition, the proposed turbine has good power efficiency at low wind speeds, and is suitable for deployment in areas not yet favoured by wind farm developers.

The mixing promoting capability of right-angled triangular tab with sharp and truncated vertex has been investigated by placing two identical tabs at the exit of a Mach 2 axi-symmetric nozzle. The mixing promoting efficiency of these tabs have been quantified in the presence of adverse and marginally favourable pressure gradients at the nozzle exit. It was found that, at all levels of expansion of the present study though the core length reduction caused by both the tabs are appreciable, but the mixing caused by the truncated tab is superior. The mixing promoting efficiency of the truncated tab is found to increase with increase of nozzle pressure ratio (that is, decrease of adverse pressure gradient). For all the nozzle pressure ratios of the present study, the core length reduction caused by the truncated vertex tab is more than that of sharp vertex tab. As high as 84% reduction in core length is achieved with truncated vertex right-angled triangular tabs at moderately overexpanded level, corresponding to expansion level pe/pa = 0·90. The corresponding core length reduction for right-angled triangular tabs with sharp vertex and rectangular tabs are 65% and 31%, respectively. The present results clearly show that the mixing promoting capability of the triangular tab is best than that of rectangular tabs at identical blockage and flow conditions.

Stage separation is a critical technical issue for developing two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) launch systems with widebody carrier aircraft that use air-breathing propulsion and launch vehicle stages that use rocket propulsion. During conceptual design phases, this issue can be addressed with a combination of engineering methods, computational fluid dynamics simulations, and trajectory analysis of the mated system and the launch vehicle after staging. The outcome of such analyses helps to establish the credibility of the proposed TSTO system and formulate a ground-based test programme for the preliminary design phase. This approach is demonstrated with an assessment of stage separation from the shuttle carrier aircraft. Flight conditions are determined for safe mated flight, safe stage separation, and for the launch vehicle as it commences ascending flight. Accurate assessment of aerodynamic forces and moments is critical during staging to account for interference effects from the proximities of the two large vehicles. Interference aerodynamics have a modest impact on the separation conditions and separated flight trajectories, but have a significant impact on the interaction forces.

A parameter-based study of a novel self-cleaning barrier filter concept for rotorcraft engines is presented. Existing engine inlet barrier filters for rotorcraft achieve a high separation efficiency (up to 99% for a dust resembling a coarse test dust) at the expense of a pressure drop that increases over time. Other engine protection devices with invariant pressure loss signals cannot offer the same level of efficiency. Furthermore, inlet barrier filters are absent on rotorcraft with larger mass flow demands, due to larger filtration area required. This work proposes a solution that addresses each of these limitations, and establishes the parametric framework upon which such a design could be realised. The drum-shaped self-cleaning barrier filter is affixed to the engine inlet and spins about its longitudinal axis, such that each of its fibrous filter pleats can be cleaned once per cycle. An initial increase of pressure loss gives way to a period of sustained invariance. The key parameters are the internal particle capacity of the chosen filter medium and the speed of rotation. Other design parameters can be optimised to yield minimum pressure drop for given set of flow conditions.

This paper presents the results of a study conducted at the Laboratoire de recherche en commande active, avionique et aéroservoélasticité, École de technologie supérieure, regarding the costs in fuel burn and pollutant emissions corresponding to a flight profile determined by a missed approach procedure. The evaluated missed approach flight profile starts at the point where the missed approach decision is made and ends at the same point, after the aircraft completes the missed approach procedure.

This study uses the fuel burn and pollutant emissions data for a Boeing 737-400 aircraft (chosen at random for this study), published by the European Environment Agency, and the standard flying cycle model elaborated by Group 08 of the Task Force on Emissions Inventories and Projections – a task force created by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE)/the co-operative program for the monitoring and evaluation of the long-range transmission of air pollutants in the Europe (EMEP). The missed approach fight profile is based on the Area Navigation/Required Navigation Performance procedure for runway 13R of the King County International Airport/Boeing Field (BFI) in Seattle.

Four study cases are considered for the missed approach flight evaluation. These cases correspond to four navigation profiles – a combination of two lateral navigation profiles, one with a 20 nautical miles holding pattern and the other without, and two vertical navigation profiles. The results obtained for the missed approach flight profiles, in terms of fuel burn and emissions, are compared with the fuel burn and emissions reference data corresponding to a standard approach procedure and complete flights (from taxi out to taxi in).

The current drive towards reducing the environmental impact of aircraft necessitates the ability to evaluate techniques for promoting natural laminar flow in a large scale wind tunnel facility. A test was undertaken on the M2355 variable sweep model to obtain temperature sensitive paint (TSP) and hot-film data from which the transition locations at a range of sweep angles and flow conditions could be identified. The TSP technique has been shown to be a reliable method for determining transition on suitably treated wind tunnel models. Pressure data were also acquired and interpolated to provide the input to the laminar boundary layer code, BL2D, the output from which was used in the linear stability analysis code, CoDS, to calculate the N-factor for the ARA TWT (Transonic Wind Tunnel) facility. Two sets of N-factors were calculated, firstly using incompressible analysis with stationary crossflow and secondly using compressible analysis with travelling crossflow. In both analyses the Tollmien-Schlichting and crossflow cases were calculated together, rather than separating the cases before running the analysis. The resulting N-factors indicate a degree of scatter typical for experimental data. The N-factor based on incompressible theory for crossflow was found to be approximately 7 and for Tollmien-Schlichting (T-S), approximately 11. The results of the wind tunnel test and the analysis carried out are considered to be the first steps towards establishing a methodology for performance testing, in atmospheric tunnels such as the TWT, for aircraft designed to have significant regions of laminar flow. The project has also provided a body of experimental test data which will be valuable for future research into development and validation of laminar flow methods.

Wave drag reduction is important for the aerodynamic performance optimisation of supersonic cruise aircrafts, such as the supersonic civil transport and the supersonic cruise missile. In this paper a method of the supersonic wing-body wave drag optimisation, the wave drag co-optimisation based on far-field composite elements (CoFCE), is proposed based on class-shape-transformation (CST) parameterisation. Wave drag optimisation cases of a supersonic civil transport wing-body are presented, including the optimisation results and computation cost analyses. It is suggested that the supersonic wing-body wave drag can be significantly reduced by the proposed method with relatively small numbers of design parameter. In the optimisation case presented in this paper a 45% wave drag reduction is achieved. The wave drag optimised configuration also achieved significant lift to drag ratio improvements in small angles-of-attack supersonic cruise flight conditions.