TY - JOUR
T1 - Sensitivity Analysis of the Overwing Nacelle Design Space
AU - Ahuja, Jai
AU - Ashwin Renganathan, S.
AU - Mavris, Dimitri N.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding from The Airbus Company to support this work. The authors are also grateful to David Hills (Airbus) for his valuable feedback and Steven Berguin (Raytheon) for his leadership and project management through the duration of this project.
Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding from The Air-bus Company to support this work. The authors are also grateful to David Hills (Airbus) for his valuable feedback and Steven Berguin (Raytheon) for his leadership and project management through the duration of this project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, AIAA International. All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/11
Y1 - 2022/11
N2 - The overwing nacelle (OWN) concept refers to aircraft designs where the engine is installed above the wing. The OWN configuration offers several advantages over conventional underwing nacelle (UWN) vehicles, which include improved fuel-burn and propulsive efficiencies due to the feasibility of ultrahigh-bypass-ratio turbofans, as well as reduced noise. However, a nonoptimal OWN design can result in large transonic drag penalties that can potentially outweigh the aforementioned benefits. We study the OWN design problem from an aerodynamics and propulsion perspective using the NASA Common Research Model, a notional 90,000-lb-thrust-class turbofan model, and Reynolds–averaged Navier–Stokes simulations. We first quantify the sensitivity of the drag, lift, and pressure recovery to variations in engine location and power setting; and we identify trends. Then, we perform aerodynamic design optimization of the wing and nacelle to determine OWN performance improvement from outer-mold-line refinement at a favorable engine installation location. A 20% reduction in drag is achieved for the optimized OWN configuration, highlighting the sensitivity of OWN aerodynamics to airframe contours. However, compared to the UWN baseline, the optimized OWN drag is 5% higher at the same lift and worsens significantly at higher lift.
AB - The overwing nacelle (OWN) concept refers to aircraft designs where the engine is installed above the wing. The OWN configuration offers several advantages over conventional underwing nacelle (UWN) vehicles, which include improved fuel-burn and propulsive efficiencies due to the feasibility of ultrahigh-bypass-ratio turbofans, as well as reduced noise. However, a nonoptimal OWN design can result in large transonic drag penalties that can potentially outweigh the aforementioned benefits. We study the OWN design problem from an aerodynamics and propulsion perspective using the NASA Common Research Model, a notional 90,000-lb-thrust-class turbofan model, and Reynolds–averaged Navier–Stokes simulations. We first quantify the sensitivity of the drag, lift, and pressure recovery to variations in engine location and power setting; and we identify trends. Then, we perform aerodynamic design optimization of the wing and nacelle to determine OWN performance improvement from outer-mold-line refinement at a favorable engine installation location. A 20% reduction in drag is achieved for the optimized OWN configuration, highlighting the sensitivity of OWN aerodynamics to airframe contours. However, compared to the UWN baseline, the optimized OWN drag is 5% higher at the same lift and worsens significantly at higher lift.
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U2 - 10.2514/1.C036687
DO - 10.2514/1.C036687
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85142666883
SN - 0021-8669
VL - 59
SP - 1478
EP - 1492
JO - Journal of Aircraft
JF - Journal of Aircraft
IS - 6
ER -