Aerodynamic Interaction and Analysis of Nose-Mounted Propeller Aircraft

Abstract

The paper deals with the aerodynamic analysis of a nose mounted propeller aircraft using the flow solver HiFUN. Unsteady RANS simulations using sliding mesh technology is performed on aircraft with propeller. The study on the aerodynamics of a propeller-driven aircraft is challenging because of the interaction of propeller slipstream with wing and other components, leading to the modification of force and moment coefficients of the aircraft, and performance parameters of the propeller as well. The effect of propeller slipstream on aircraft aerodynamics and the installation effects on propeller aerodynamics are studied using CFD. The regions on the aircraft influenced by the propeller slipstream is also identified by the means of pressure plots. The comparison of force and moment coefficients obtained from powered and unpowered simulations are also discussed and this includes a comment on the pitch stability of the aircraft. The results obtained from powered simulations are also compared with the flight stall tests. The work establishes the suitability of the present day CFD tools for the aerodynamic analysis of propeller driven aircraft, and the need for super-computing platform to accomplish the unsteady powered simulations.