Energy-Based Aerodynamic Loss and Recovery Characteristics of Adiabatic and Heated Fuselages

Abstract

An energy-based aerodynamic analysis of the mechanical loss generation and potential energy/exergy recovery mechanisms is carried out for adiabatic and heated 2D axisymmetric flows over fuselage-shaped axisymmetric bodies. A generality of these mechanisms is obtained from dimensional analysis by appropriately scaling the freestream Reynolds and Mach numbers, while varying a reference fuselage’s fineness ratio. Thermo-aerodynamic implications and synergies of boundary-layer heating on the loss distribution, energy, and heat exergy recovery potentials are further considered for varying wall temperature ratios. The result is a clear identification of partial dynamic similarity and heat transfer effects on flow mechanisms such as shear layers, separation bubbles, and shockwaves of axisymmetric flows, and subsequent implications on loss distribution and energy recovery characteristics relating to boundary-layer ingestion. The analysis indicates that dissipating heat from aircraft surfaces aids, circumstantially, to drag reduction of unpowered fuselage bodies and increases, relative to the adiabatic, the recoverable energy fraction available for the boundary-layer ingestion propulsor, by strategically manipulating the loss distribution, while removing excess heat from the aircraft’s subsystem (batteries, fuel cells). Finally, an approach to assess the feasibility of exergetic heat recuperation as a possible means of useful work extraction and improved aerodynamic performance is explicitly introduced and discussed in the paper.