The Large Eddy Simulation and Stability Analysis of Flow Field in a Generic Cabin

Abstract

The detailed instantaneous information and evolution of flow field in aircraft cabin were crucial for determining the spread of contaminants or viruses and creating a comfortable environment. In this paper, a refined large-eddy simulation (LES) was conducted to investigate the complex airflow characteristics in a single row B737-200 aircraft cabin model. The simulated result showed that the flow field was highly unstable. By the structural stability analysis of flow field, there were saddle points and heteroclinic orbits in cross sections of cabin model. According to the Peixoto theorem, the flow field was not a structurally stable system. Sufficiently small perturbations could alter the topological character of the set of trajectories and cause various unstability or bifurcation of flow field. The refined LES could effectively simulate the intrinsic unstable properties of flow field in aircraft cabin model. These information could be used to modify RANS turbulence models for simulation of disease transmission and thermal comfort.