High Lift Split Flaps for the Flying-V

The Flying-V, a novel aircraft design developed at Delft University of Technology, presents a revolutionary flying wing transport aircraft with a remarkable 20% reduction in energy consumption compared to traditional twin-aisle planes. <br/>This thesis project delves into the study of optimizing the Flying-V's landing performance, emphasizing...

Wall Interference Assessment of Isolated Fixed-Pitch Propeller Tests

The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is emergent throughout every industrial sector worldwide. For aviation, this has opened a market gap for small scale electric aircraft configurations (e-V/STOL). These configurations are very diverse and they are classified based on how lift is obtained. However, their flight...

Cross-comparison and uncertainty quantification of aeroacoustic measurements performed in several wind tunnels

Trailing-edge noise can be the dominant noise source of diverse industrial applications, including wind turbines. Noise regulations may limit the power production and installation of new wind farms. There is a need to reduce it. In order to achieve so, we first need to predict it, and to do so we need experimental data to support and validate...

Wind loading of STS cranes: Investigating improved calculation methods

Wind loads acting on STS cranes are an important design parameter to be taken into account when designing STS cranes. Current calculation standards such as the EN13001-2 overestimate wind forces. The goal of this research is to propose an improvement on current calculation standards. Wind tunnel tests were performed to assess the results of...

Improving the Flying V Directional Control Power by the Implementation of Split Flaps

This thesis is performed with the aim to investigate whether split flaps can be a feasible solution for increasing the Flying V directional control power. In order to do so, a set of wind tunnel experiments have been concluded with a 4.6% half wing model in the Open-Jet-Facility at the Delft University of Technology. Here, several split flap...

An Experimental Study on Supersonic Panel Flutter Using Simultaneous Digital Image Correlation and Schlieren

Supersonic panel flutter is a self-excited vibration, where energy is transferred into thin flexible panels, such as skin panels in supersonic vehicles, from the (supersonic) flow around them, which can lead to their rapid fatigue failure. Relevant examples of this include the failure of skin panels in the X-15 vehicle, or violent oscillations...

Development of an Aeroservoelastic Platform: From Concept to Final Product

With the increased focus on sustainability, aircraft are designed to reduce their emissions. One way to accomplish this is by increasing the wing aspect ratio, thereby increasing the aerodynamic efficiency, however this is not without consequences. Increased aspect ratio wings have a higher structural mass, are more susceptible to gust and...

Aerodynamics of a skater leg: Experimental investigation on Reynolds number effects

The design of current skating suits is based on the assumption that the flow across the skater body parts is highly similar to cylinder flow. The latter features drag crisis behaviour, resulting in significant drag reduction at the critical Reynolds number. However, whether the aforementioned assumption is valid and whether a drag crisis along...

Experimental Investigation into the Effect of Aerodynamic Add-ons on the Aerodynamic Characteristics of the Flying V

This research has been performed with the purpose of understanding the cause of the unstable pitch break experienced by the Flying V at a lift coefficient of CL = 0.95. Without understanding and possibly elimination of the pitch break, the flying V’s usable maximum lift coefficient is lower and the pitching moment behavior and gust response...

Static Aeroelastic Scaling: Design of a static aeroelastically scaled strut-braced wing wind tunnel test model

Classical aerodynamic wind tunnel tests are performed with stiff or rigid wind tunnel models. Over the years wing structures have become more flexible, and with the rise of non-conventional designs, such as strut-braced wings featuring high aspect ratios, even more flexible designs have risen. To capture the aerodynamic performance of these...

Cyclist Reynolds number effects and drag crisis distribution

The Reynolds number effects on body limbs of a cyclist model, namely leg and arm, are investigated via robotic volumetric Particle Image Velocimetry measurements in the velocity range from 5 ​m/s to 25 ​m/s. The near wakes of such body limbs feature recirculation regions whose width and length are governed not only by the taper of the body...

Experimental investigation of boundary layer ingestion in integrated propulsion systems

This thesis experimentally assesses the benefit of Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) at the unaccelerated condition (thrust equals drag) of an integrated system in an industrial wind tunnel setting. The boundary layer or wake flow of the fuselage is ingested by the propulsor. Previous research shows that ingesting the boundary layer can lead to...