A general numerical unsteady non-linear lifting line model for engineering aerodynamics studies. (6th June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sugar-Gabor, O.
• Is Part Of: Aeronautical journal. Volume 122:Number 1254(2018)
• Page Start: 1199
• Page End: 1228
• Publication Date: 2018-06-06
• Subjects: Lifting-line model, -- unsteady lifting line, -- 2D-3D coupling, -- lifting-surface aerodynamics, -- flapping wing, -- horizontal-axis wind turbine; Aeronautics -- Periodicals; 629.1305
• DOI: 10.1017/aer.2018.57
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0001-9240

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The lifting-line theory is widely used for obtaining aerodynamic performance results in various engineering fields, from aircraft conceptual design to wind-power generation. Many different models were proposed, each tailored for a specific purpose, thus having a rather narrow applicability range. This paper presents a general lifting-line model capable of accurately analysing a wide range of engineering problems involving lifting surfaces, both steady-state and unsteady cases. It can be used for lifting surface with sweep, dihedral, twisting and winglets and includes features such as non-linear viscous corrections, unsteady and quasi-steady force calculation, stable wake relaxation through fictitious time marching and wake stretching and dissipation. Possible applications include wing design for low-speed aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, the study of high-frequency avian flapping flight or wind-turbine blade design and analysis. Several validation studies are performed, both steady-state and unsteady, the method showing good agreement with experimental data or numerical results obtained with more computationally expensive methods.