B.W. van Oudheusden
83 records found
1
An impinging Shock Wave-Turbulent Boundary Layer Interaction (SWTBLI) at Mach 2 was investigated experimentally while implementing two-dimensional Shock Control Bumps (SCBs). The aim was to investigate the changes in the unsteady dynamics while changing the bump ramp angle, tail
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The 'hammerhead fairing' (HHF) launcher configuration uses a payload fairing that has a larger diameter than the launch vehicle. This allows for larger payloads to be carried using the same launcher components. However, the HHF leads to high aerodynamic forcing in the transonic r
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An Experimental Investigation Into Shock-Induced Panel Flutter
Study into the effect of mean surface deformation and wind tunnel boundary conditions on panel flutter
The aerospace industry’s push for faster, lighter, and more durable designs highlights the critical challenge of panel flutter in supersonic flight, a poorly understood phenomenon intensified by shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions (SWBLI). This study experimentally investigate
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This thesis investigates the role of winglet slots in reducing tip vortices, inspired by bird wingtips. The effects of slotting and wingtip flexibility were analyzed using multiple bio-inspired models tested in a low-speed wind tunnel at Reynolds numbers from 2.9 × 10⁴ to 8.8 × 1
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An important challenge in the electrification of aircraft propulsion systems is the design of thermal management systems because of an increased heat load that needs to be dissipated. As an alternative to high-drag external heat exchangers, one can consider surface heat exchanger
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Wind tunnel investigations of cycling aerodynamics are conducted in air streams that are designed to have minimum turbulence. This is not representative of the true, turbulent wind environment encountered by a track cyclist in an indoor velodrome. The goal of this thesis, broadly
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TOP contoured nozzles, with large area-ratios, are commonly employed in rocket propulsion systems as they feature an excellent thrust-to-weight ratio. A significant shortcoming to this design is that, during the startup and shutdown transients of a LRE, the internal nozzle flow p
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Turbulent flow over liquid-infused superhydrophobic surfaces
An experimental investigation into the drag performance and flow mechanics
Surfaces that induce slip at the wall have been shown to reduce skin friction drag in the turbulent regime. While superhydrophobic and liquid-infused surfaces are capable of drag reduction in turbulent hydrodynamic flows, neither would be feasible in aerodynamic applications due
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As the space industry continues to grow rapidly, the development of reusable launch vehicles has become crucial in achieving cost-effective and sustainable access to space. Payload capacity optimisation has been at the forefront of this effort, leading to a renewed interest in ha
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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 cl ...
Surface pressure measurements are a crucial part of aerodynamic/hydrodynamic analysis and are essential when studying complex flow phenomena. Although pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) has become established as a non-intrusive field measurement technique for high-speed applications
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Unmanned aerial vehicles have proliferated in the last few decades, with applications that include military, commercial and recreational. Their size and typical flight velocities are characterized by moderate Reynolds numbers O(10^4-10^5). For such conditions, boundary lay
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The technical advancements achieved during the last decade have permitted the implementation of low-fidelity numerical methods to analyze simplified aeroelastic problems. However, the available computational power is still incapable of dealing with more realistic events involving
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Supersonic flows cause thin panels to flutter, which is characterized by high-amplitude self-sustained oscillations, increasing the risk of fatigue failure. Flutter is known to be exacerbated when a shock wave impinges on the panel, creating a shock wave/boundary-layer interactio
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An experimental study on flared folding wingtips
Effects of wing stiffness, aeroelastic tailoring and hinge release threshold on gust load alleviation performance
The flared folding wingtip (FFWT) is a concept presented by Airbus to increase the aerodynamic efficiency and provide a means of load alleviation. A gate-to-gate demonstration of this concept has already been presented with the AlbatrossONE, a scaled aircraft featuring the FFWT c
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Wall-normal pores for turbulent drag reduction
Experimental investigation into drag performance and flow mechanics
Flat surfaces with arrays of wall-normal pores called micro-cavity arrays have shown potential to reduce turbulent skin friction drag. Their designs have been inspired by acoustic liners which are sandwich panels consisting of a hon ...
In the last thirty years, massive improvements in flight operations and aircraft technology were implemented, reaching a 54% reduction in specific fuel consumption [1]. However, during the same period, the aviation market has tripled the number of flights per year with a conseque
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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 fa
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Flow sensing exists widely in nature to help animals perform certain tasks. It has also been widely adopted in engineering applications with different types of sensing instrumentation. In particular, in the field of aerospace engineering, airflow sensing is crucial to vehicle sta
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