Aerodynamic analysis of the closure flap mechanism inside the NACA ram-air intake

Master thesis (2020)

Authors

K.C. Leung Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

Roelof Vos Flight Performance and Propulsion - Aerospace Engineering (mentor)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering, Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2020 K.C. Leung
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Published Date

24-08-2020

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

A low-speed aerodynamic analysis on the conventional NACA ram-air inlet of the Airbus A320 with a new closure flap was conducted. The conventional closure flap mechanism inside the NACA ram-air inlet is replaced by a morphing plate design. Steady-state Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted in order to analyse the aerodynamic performance of the baseline model and the new design with morphing flap for a range of operating settings. For validation, the Least Squares version of the Grid Convergence Index was carried out to show the grid independence. The results show an improvement in pressure recovery with a maximum of 13.5% for the NACA ram-air inlet with a morphing flap installed compared to the baseline model with a hinged flap. The maximum drag reduction by replacing the hinged flap with a morphing flap was found to be 33.8%.