Numerical Simulations on Unsteady Nonlinear Transonic Airfoil Flow

Large-amplitude excitations need to be considered for gust load analyses of transport aircraft in cruise flight conditions. Nonlinear amplitude effects in transonic flow are, however, only marginally taken into account. The present work aims at closing this gap by means of systematic unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations. The RAE2822 airfoil is analyzed for a variety of sinusoidal gust excitations at different transonic Mach numbers. Responses are evaluated with respect to lift and moment coefficients, their derivatives and the unsteady shock motion. A strong dependency on inflow Mach number and excitation frequency is observed. Generally, amplitude effects decrease with lower Mach numbers or higher excitation frequencies. The unsteady nonlinear simulations predict lower maximum lift values and lower lift and moment derivatives compared to their linear counterparts for lower frequencies in combination with large-amplitude excitations. For the mid-frequency range, trends are not as clear. Additionally, it is shown that the variables of harmonic distortion and maximum shock motion might not be reasonable indicators to predict a nonlinear response.

Importance of Air Humidity and Contaminations in the Internal and External Transonic Flows

The paper presents mathematical modelling of steam condensation in the atmospheric air transonic flows. A single-fluid model was employed. The model was validated against the in-house experimental studies of internal flow in nozzles and against benchmark tests available in literature i.e., RAE2822 transonic airfoil. The impact of air relative humidity on the condensation process under transonic flow conditions was examined. The paper shows that the impact of the condensation process in air transonic flow is non-negligible and has to be taken under consideration in flow simulations. The presence of air contaminants in form of small particles was considered too. Their crucial role in the change of the transonic flow structure was numerically confirmed.