The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Advanced computational modelling for aircraft landing gear unsteady aerodynamics

Advanced computational modelling for aircraft landing gear unsteady aerodynamics
Advanced computational modelling for aircraft landing gear unsteady aerodynamics
High-fidelity turbulence modelling techniques have been applied to simulate the flow field around a simplified landing gear bay geometry. Three-dimensional Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) simulations have been performed for a cavity with the front 2/3 covered, as is representative of a nose landing gear bay. Resonant modes were observed in the shear layer, with frequencies in good agreement with the Rossiter cavity modes. The side-walls of the cavity, when compared to quasi-two-dimensional simulations with infinite span, were found to suppress the presence of acoustic modes inside the cavity, as well as causing a greater degree of breakdown in the shear layer, and changing the dominant resonant modes.

The geometry was varied to incorporate a single strut, and (separately) open rear doors, to test their separate contributions to the flow field in the landing gear bay. Both were found to produce small, high-frequency vortex structures, which interacted with the cavity shear layer and caused higher resonant modes to be present than with the clean cavity. A Large Eddy Simulation (LES) methodology has been developed and improved using the in-house solver software. An improved subgrid-scale model has been implemented, and the sensitivity of the solution to a variety of settings has been tested. Using a method for efficiently simulating flat-plate turbulence by tripping the flow using a small step, realistic wall-bounded turbulence has been modelled, with mean and turbulent quantities in good agreement with the literature for flat plate boundary layer flows.

The best-practice guidelines from this study were then applied to a turbulent flat plate upstream of the cavity with LES. The boundary layer turbulence structures were found to disrupt the coherence of the shear layer vortices, and lengthwise acoustic modes dominated inside the cavity in most cases. The sensitivity of this baseline simulation to several different parameters was investigated. These included the condition and thickness of the upstream boundary layer, the geometry around the lip of the cover, the turbulence modelling technique, and the spanwise length of the domain. The most significant difference was obtained by adding side walls, which was found to promote the development of shear layer resonance. Lower-mode tones were observed, with the associated pressure fluctuations being imposed and amplified inside the cavity.
University of Southampton
Premachandran, Sarah
03225567-6703-4e07-95de-c12d5fbd4b1e
Premachandran, Sarah
03225567-6703-4e07-95de-c12d5fbd4b1e

Premachandran, Sarah (2017) Advanced computational modelling for aircraft landing gear unsteady aerodynamics. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis, 288pp.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

High-fidelity turbulence modelling techniques have been applied to simulate the flow field around a simplified landing gear bay geometry. Three-dimensional Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) simulations have been performed for a cavity with the front 2/3 covered, as is representative of a nose landing gear bay. Resonant modes were observed in the shear layer, with frequencies in good agreement with the Rossiter cavity modes. The side-walls of the cavity, when compared to quasi-two-dimensional simulations with infinite span, were found to suppress the presence of acoustic modes inside the cavity, as well as causing a greater degree of breakdown in the shear layer, and changing the dominant resonant modes.

The geometry was varied to incorporate a single strut, and (separately) open rear doors, to test their separate contributions to the flow field in the landing gear bay. Both were found to produce small, high-frequency vortex structures, which interacted with the cavity shear layer and caused higher resonant modes to be present than with the clean cavity. A Large Eddy Simulation (LES) methodology has been developed and improved using the in-house solver software. An improved subgrid-scale model has been implemented, and the sensitivity of the solution to a variety of settings has been tested. Using a method for efficiently simulating flat-plate turbulence by tripping the flow using a small step, realistic wall-bounded turbulence has been modelled, with mean and turbulent quantities in good agreement with the literature for flat plate boundary layer flows.

The best-practice guidelines from this study were then applied to a turbulent flat plate upstream of the cavity with LES. The boundary layer turbulence structures were found to disrupt the coherence of the shear layer vortices, and lengthwise acoustic modes dominated inside the cavity in most cases. The sensitivity of this baseline simulation to several different parameters was investigated. These included the condition and thickness of the upstream boundary layer, the geometry around the lip of the cover, the turbulence modelling technique, and the spanwise length of the domain. The most significant difference was obtained by adding side walls, which was found to promote the development of shear layer resonance. Lower-mode tones were observed, with the associated pressure fluctuations being imposed and amplified inside the cavity.

Text
SPremachandran_thesis_final - Version of Record
Available under License University of Southampton Thesis Licence.
Download (64MB)

More information

Published date: March 2017

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 418073
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/418073
PURE UUID: 4bcf1b06-6d73-4f7e-9c09-47b550e40a61

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 21 Feb 2018 17:31
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 17:05

Export record

Contributors

Author: Sarah Premachandran

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×