Three-dimensional Shock Control Bumps Research Articles

Investigation of Three-Dimensional Shock Control Bumps for Transonic Buffet Alleviation

This experimental study investigates the use of shock control bumps (SCBs) for controlling transonic buffet. Three-dimensional SCBs have been applied on the suction side of an OAT15A supercritical airfoil with the experiments conducted in the transonic–supersonic wind tunnel of Delft University of Technology at fully developed buffet conditions (, and ). The effectiveness of the SCBs for different spanwise array spacings (ranging from 20 to ) was verified using two optical techniques: schlieren visualization and particle image velocimetry. Both techniques confirmed the potential of controlling buffet using such devices, resulting in a reduction of the flow unsteadiness in terms of both shock oscillation and pulsation of the separated area. A dedicated particle image velocimetry investigation in a spanwise–chordwise measurement plane was conducted in order to characterize the effect of the spatial distribution of the bumps, focusing on the interaction of the shock-wave structures along the span. The configuration with a spacing of was demonstrated to be the most efficient in reducing the transonic buffet oscillations and was able to reduce the reverse flow region size as compared to the clean configuration.

Designing a Shock Control Bump Array for a Transonic Wing–Body Model

Research on three-dimensional shock control bumps has paid little attention to design methods for arrays on aircraft. This paper takes a first step, examining whether design rules for maximizing the on-design performance of swept infinite-wing bumps can be successfully used to build a finite array. A computational study using infinite-wing and aircraft models creates a design method tailoring bump location, ramp angle, and rotation to local flow conditions on the aircraft wing. Rules for rotation and ramp angle produce comparable performance trends on both models. The former correctly predicts the best rotation as a few degrees from the average local flow direction, whereas the optimal ramp angles were 0.625 times that of the initial distribution because the beneficial influence on lift of shorter arrays was stronger than that provided by infinite-wing shock control bumps. This final array performance was in good agreement with a ballpark prediction for its impact on local wave drag. However, the total aircraft drag change was larger than the local impact, due to an influence away from the immediate vicinity of the array, and the impact on lift. Consequently, when choosing preferred array designs, it is essential to consider the impact on the entire aircraft model at fixed-lift conditions.

Numerical Study on the Ability of Shock Control Bumps for Buffet Control

In addition to efficient reduction of wave drag in transonic flight, shock control bumps also offer some potential for buffet alleviation. In the present paper, two different approaches for buffet control by shock control bumps are compared and assessed based on time-resolved (unsteady) Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations: downstream positioning of two-dimensional bumps, necessitating an adaptive device for combining both features (wave drag reduction and buffet control), and vortex generation by three-dimensional bumps as “smart vortex generators”. With the intention of providing detailed insight into dominant flow features and linking geometrical bump characteristics to those flow structures, the effect of bump design condition, crest height, and streamwise positioning of two- and three-dimensional shock control bumps on buffet behavior and performance of a supercritical, unswept wing section has been analyzed. Two-dimensional shock control bumps improve buffet behavior by an efficient shock strength reduction in combination with positive effects on flow separation. For three-dimensional bumps, the same buffet-affecting mechanisms have been observed, only less dominant due to the finite spanwise extent. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the strength of three-dimensional bumps’ vortical wake can be tuned by appropriate bump shaping and that this strength positively correlates with delayed buffet onset.

Adapting Three-Dimensional Shock Control Bumps for Swept Flows

Shock control bumps offer the potential to reduce wave drag on transonic aircraft wings. However, most studies to date have only considered unswept flow conditions, leaving uncertain their applicability to realistic finite swept wings. This paper uses a swept infinite-wing model as an intermediate step, and it presents a computational study of the design drag performance of three-dimensional bumps. A new geometric parameter, termed bump orientation, is introduced and found to be crucial to the performance under swept flows. Classic shock control bumps aligned approximately with the local to freestream flow direction can offer drag reductions comparable to those from similar but unoriented devices in unswept flows, whereas badly misaligned bumps see severe performance degradation. For appropriately aligned classic bumps, the relationships between performance and selected geometric parameters (height, streamwise position, and isolation) are found to be somewhat similar to those observed in unswept studies.

Adapting Three-Dimensional Shock Control Bumps for Swept Flows

Shock control bumps offer the potential to reduce wave drag on transonic aircraft wings. However, most studies to date have only considered unswept flow conditions, leaving uncertain their applicability to realistic finite swept wings. This paper uses a swept infinite-wing model as an intermediate step, and it presents a computational study of the design drag performance of three-dimensional bumps. A new geometric parameter, termed bump orientation, is introduced and found to be crucial to the performance under swept flows. Classic shock control bumps aligned approximately with the local to freestream flow direction can offer drag reductions comparable to those from similar but unoriented devices in unswept flows, whereas badly misaligned bumps see severe performance degradation. For appropriately aligned classic bumps, the relationships between performance and selected geometric parameters (height, streamwise position, and isolation) are found to be somewhat similar to those observed in unswept studies.

Vortical Structures on Three-Dimensional Shock Control Bumps

Three-dimensional shock control bumps have long been investigated for their promising wave drag reduction capability. However, a recently emerging application has been their deployment as “smart” vortex generators, which offset the parasitic drag of their vortices against their wave drag reduction. It is known that three-dimensional shock control bumps produce streamwise vortices under most operating conditions; however, there have been very few investigations that have aimed to specifically examine the relevant flow structures. In particular, the strength of the vortices produced as well as the factors influencing their production are not well known. This paper uses a joint experimental and computational approach to test three different shock control bump shapes, categorizing their flow structures. Four common key vortical structures are observed, predominantly shear flows, although all bumps also produce a streamwise vortex pair. Both cases with and without flow separation on the bump tails are scrutinized. Finally, correlations between the strength of the main wake vortices and pressure gradients at various locations on the bumps are assessed to investigate which parts of the flow control the vortex formation. Spanwise flows on the bump ramp are seen to be the most influential factor in vortex strength.

Toward Designing with Three-Dimensional Bumps for Lift/Drag Improvement and Buffet Alleviation

The desire to design more efficient transport aircraft has led to many different attempts to minimize drag. One approach is the use of three-dimensional shock control bumps, which have gained popularity in the research community as simple, efficient and robust devices capable of reducing the wave drag of transonic wings. This paper presents a computational study of the performance of three-dimensional bumps, relating key bump design variables to the overall wing aerodynamic performance. An efficient parameterization scheme allows three-dimensional bumps to be directly compared to two-dimensional designs, indicating that two-dimensional bumps are capable of greater design point aerodynamic performance in the transonic regime. An advantage of three-dimensional bumps lies in the production of streamwise vortices, such that, while two-dimensional bumps are capable of superior performance near the design point, three-dimensional bumps are capable of breakingup regions of separated flow at high Mach numbers, suggesting improvement in terms of buffet margin. A range of bump designs are developed that exhibit a tradeoff between design point aerodynamic efficiency and improvementinbuffet margin, indicating the potential for bespoke designs to be generated for different sections of a wing based on its flow characteristics. Copyright © 2012 by Jeremy Eastwood and Jerome Jarrett.

Experimental Study into the Flow Physics of Three-Dimensional Shock Control Bumps

This paper describes a fundamental experimental study of the flow structure around a single three-dimensional (3D) transonic shock control bump (SCB) mounted on a flat surface in a wind tunnel. Tests have been carried out with a Mach 1.3 normal shock wave located at a number of streamwise positions relative to the SCB. Details of the flow have been studied using the experimental techniques of schlieren photography, surface oil flow visualization, pressure sensitive paint, and laser Doppler anemometry. The results of the work build on the findings of previous researchers and shed new light on the flow physics of 3D SCBs. It is found that spanwise pressure gradients across the SCB ramp and the shape of the SCB sides affect the magnitude and uniformity of flow turning generated by the bump, which can impact on the spanwise propagation of the quasi-two-dimensional (2D) shock structure produced by a 3DSCB. At the bump crest, vortices can form if the pressure on the crest is significantly lower than at either side of the bump. The trajectories of these vortices, which are relatively weak, are strongly influenced by any spanwise pressure gradients across the bump tail. Asignificant difference between 2D and 3D SCBs highlighted by the study is the impact of spanwise pressure gradients on 3D SCB performance. The magnitude of these spanwise pressure gradients is determined largely by SCB geometry and shock position. Copyright © 2011 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Numerical and Experimental Validation of Three-Dimensional Shock Control Bumps

Numerical and experimental studies have been performed to show the potential for drag reductions of an array of discrete three-dimensional shock control bumps. The bump contour investigated was specifically designed by means of computational-fluid-dynamics-based numerical optimization for wind-tunnel testing on a modern transonic airfoil. The experimental investigations focused on turbulent flow at a Reynolds number of 5 million and were carried out at the Transonic Wind Tunnel Gottingen. Drag reductions of around 10% in the drag-rise region were found in the experiment even though the results were influenced by wind-tunnel interference effects. A detailed numerical study of the wind-tunnel environment reproduced the influence of the wind-tunnel walls on the bump performance and gave good agreement to the experimental results.

Three-dimensional contour bumps for transonic wing drag reduction

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional contour bumps are designed and optimized for substantial wave drag reduction for an un-swept natural laminar flow (NLF) wing (RAE5243 aerofoil section) at transonic speeds. An NLF aerofoil wing is chosen in this study, as shock control is more crucial for such wings due to the requirement of favourable pressure gradients on a substantial part of the wing. For the validation purpose and to focus on the wave drag issues, the boundary layer is assumed to be fully turbulent from the leading edge. Key bump geometrical parameters including the maximum height, the length, and the crest position have been chosen for the parameterization of the two-dimensional and three-dimensional shock control bumps. For the three-dimensional bumps, an array of the contour bumps is installed spanwise on the transonic wing and their width and spanwise spacing are chosen as additional design parameters. Both the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional bump shapes are optimized using a discrete adjoint-based optimization method. The performance of the three-dimensional contour bumps are compared in detail with the similarly optimized two-dimensional bumps both at and around the design point. The results show that, for the NLF wing studied, the optimized three-dimensional bumps are as effective as the optimized two-dimensional bump in terms of total drag reduction at the given design point, despite the significant difference in their geometrical shapes. More importantly, in terms of the operational range for varying lift conditions for practical applications, the three-dimensional bumps outperform the two-dimensional bump by a substantial margin.

A combined experimental and numerical study of flow structures over three-dimensional shock control bumps

A detailed study of transonic flow over three-dimensional bumps has been conducted using experimental measurements and computational simulation. The aim of the investigation is to determine the flow characteristics over these potentially effective flow control devices for wave drag reduction for transonic aircraft wings. Careful qualitative and quantitative matching of the simulation and experimental conditions has considerably improved the agreement between them. In both the experiments and the computation, the shock position in the working section was found to be sensitive not only to the back pressure and the sidewall effects, but also to the incoming boundary layer characteristics. Two turbulence models, a modified Baldwin–Lomax model with enhanced performance in separated flow (curvature model) and a two-equation model ( k – ω ) have been implemented in the numerical simulation. Overall, both turbulence models gave reasonable results for the uncontrolled and controlled cases regarding the inviscid flowfield and the shock structure. In particular, a pair of streamwise vortices embedded in the boundary layer was captured by the two models. The traces in the surface oil flow pictures from the experiment also suggested the existence of the streamwise vortices. The combined surface and flowfield data provide some further insight into the flow physics on the shock control ramp bump, which is discussed in the paper. In addition, the study also demonstrates the enhanced capability of the algebraic model in capturing separated flow features with lower computational cost as compared to the k – ω model.

Parallel adjoint-based optimisation of a blended wing body aircraft with shock control bumps

An Euler optimisation for a BWB configuration with winglets incorporating an array of three-dimensional shock control bumps is carried out by employing an efficient adjoint-based optimisation methodology. A high fidelity multi-block grid with over two million grid points is generated to resolve the shape of the 3D shock control bumps, the winglet as well as the overall BWB shape, which are parameterised by over 650 design variables. In order to perform such a large aerodynamic optimisation problem feasibly, the optimisation tools such as the flow solver and the adjoint solver have to be parallelised with a good parallel efficiency. This paper reports the parallel implementation efforts on the adjoint solver; especially on the calculation of the sensitivity derivatives, which has to be looped over the total number of design variables. Results from the optimisation of the wing master sections, winglet aerofoil sections and the three dimensional bumps indicate a significant improvement regarding the aerodynamic performance against the baseline geometry for the given planform layout of the aircraft.